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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 hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. That was ________________ to happen.
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. bound — certain
  3. fall — to drop
  4. spring — a coil
  5. bat — the animal
  6. field — a subject
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. bound — obliged
  9. field — for sport
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. field — farmland
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. drill — a practice
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. fall — the season
  17. row — to paddle
  18. drill — the tool
  19. bound — tied together
  20. drill — army training
  21. fall — to drop
  22. row — a line
  23. spring — the season
  24. bat — for baseball

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