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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. track — a path
  3. field — a subject
  4. field — for sport
  5. march — the month
  6. band — a music group
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. spring — a coil
  10. bat — the animal
  11. march — the month
  12. field — farmland
  13. spring — the season
  14. cell — a phone
  15. band — a ring
  16. track — to keep track
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. spring — of water
  19. game — a match
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. march — music
  23. cell — in biology
  24. track — a song

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