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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  22. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. last — to go on
  3. drill — the tool
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. chest — of your body
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. field — a subject
  8. drill — a practice
  9. field — farmland
  10. last — finally
  11. cell — a phone
  12. field — for sport
  13. spring — the season
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. last — final
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. spring — of water
  18. cell — in biology
  19. chest — a box
  20. chest — of your body
  21. hide — animal skin
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. drill — army training
  24. date — the fruit

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