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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. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — a practice
  2. content — the amount
  3. nail — on a finger
  4. content — happy
  5. spring — the season
  6. spring — a coil
  7. cold — not warm
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. nail — for a hammer
  10. field — for sport
  11. drill — army training
  12. rush — hurry
  13. row — to paddle
  14. field — farmland
  15. field — a subject
  16. cold — an illness
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. spring — of water
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. rush — to hurry
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. row — a line
  24. drill — the tool

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