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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. squash — the sport
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. field — for sport
  5. drill — a practice
  6. drill — army training
  7. squash — to crush
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. cold — not warm
  10. field — a subject
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. bat — the animal
  13. kid — child
  14. field — farmland
  15. kid — to tease
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. drill — the tool
  18. cold — an illness

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