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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. Have you met the new head ________________?
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. band — a music group
  4. field — a subject
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. field — for sport
  11. cold — not warm
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. field — farmland
  14. pitch — a sports field
  15. shower — to wash
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. band — a ring
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. shower — rain
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. branch — a division
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — an illness
  24. pitch — completely

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