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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 ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Have you met the new head ________________?
  19. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. spring — a coil
  3. field — farmland
  4. cell — a phone
  5. date — the fruit
  6. bat — the animal
  7. march — the month
  8. march — music
  9. coach — pulled by horses
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. spring — the season
  12. cell — in biology
  13. march — the month
  14. object — to protest
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. field — a subject
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. object — an aim
  20. field — for sport
  21. object — a thing
  22. spring — of water
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. bat — in an idiom

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