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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: bat · race · pitch · nail · cold · roll · field · march

  1. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. We're on a ________________ here.
  11. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. roll — a cake
  3. race — humankind
  4. race — the arms race
  5. nail — on a finger
  6. cold — an illness
  7. march — the month
  8. race — a contest
  9. bat — the animal
  10. roll — on a roll
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. pitch — completely
  14. field — farmland
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. field — for sport
  17. march — music
  18. march — the month
  19. cold — not warm
  20. roll — a list
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. field — a subject
  23. pitch — a sales talk
  24. cold — the Cold War

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