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

Word bank: cold · band · field · tear · rest · race

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. race — a contest
  3. field — a subject
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. cold — not warm
  6. race — the arms race
  7. rest — what's left
  8. cold — an illness
  9. band — a ring
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. rest — what's left
  12. band — a music group
  13. race — humankind
  14. tear — from crying
  15. field — for sport
  16. tear — to rip
  17. tear — from crying
  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