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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. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  2. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  3. The ________________ went through the wall.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  20. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. squash — the vegetable
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. field — farmland
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. bat — the animal
  8. squash — to crush
  9. drill — a practice
  10. squash — the sport
  11. kid — child
  12. cold — not warm
  13. drill — the tool
  14. kid — to tease
  15. cold — an illness
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. field — a subject
  18. branch — a division
  19. branch — of a bank
  20. nail — on a finger
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. field — for sport
  23. drill — army training
  24. cold — the Cold War

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