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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: vault · field · wind · kid · snap · cold

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. cold — not warm
  3. wind — moving air
  4. kid — to tease
  5. vault — a safe
  6. snap — to click
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. field — for sport
  9. field — a subject
  10. wind — moving air
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. kid — child
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. cold — an illness
  18. vault — an arched ceiling

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