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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 120 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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. spring — the season
  4. band — a music group
  5. drill — a practice
  6. bat — the animal
  7. field — for sport
  8. hand — help
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. hand — in cards
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. spring — of water
  14. field — farmland
  15. field — a subject
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. spring — a coil
  18. drill — the tool
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. band — a ring
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. drill — army training
  24. wake — a trail

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