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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. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I can't ________________ this cold.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — a practice
  2. drill — army training
  3. field — a subject
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. stand — to bear
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. cell — in biology
  9. spring — the season
  10. spring — of water
  11. bat — the animal
  12. cold — an illness
  13. field — for sport
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. spring — a coil
  16. stand — for spectators
  17. drill — the tool
  18. race — a contest
  19. race — humankind
  20. field — farmland
  21. stand — on your feet
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cell — a phone
  24. race — the arms race

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