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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: spring · drill · cell · bat · field · race

  1. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. spring — of water
  3. drill — the tool
  4. drill — a practice
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. race — the arms race
  7. cell — a phone
  8. field — for sport
  9. spring — a coil
  10. race — humankind
  11. spring — the season
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. bat — the animal
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. drill — army training
  16. race — a contest
  17. cell — in biology
  18. field — farmland

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