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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: net · toast · fork · game · tear · cold · temple · field

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  5. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  6. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. When was this ________________ built?
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. toast — bread
  3. cold — an illness
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. toast — a drink to someone
  6. fork — to eat with
  7. cold — not warm
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. field — farmland
  10. net — for catching
  11. toast — the most admired
  12. field — a subject
  13. field — for sport
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. game — wild animals
  18. net — after costs
  19. fork — in a road
  20. temple — side of the head
  21. tear — to rip
  22. tear — from crying
  23. tear — from crying
  24. net — in sport

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com