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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: drill · present · file · pop · cold · field · deal · arm

  1. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  11. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  17. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. drill — army training
  3. cold — an illness
  4. pop — soda
  5. field — farmland
  6. pop — music
  7. arm — a part of something
  8. file — a tool
  9. file — a document
  10. present — the time now
  11. deal — a big deal
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pop — to visit
  14. present — a gift
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. deal — to handle
  17. deal — an agreement
  18. field — a subject
  19. drill — a practice
  20. field — for sport
  21. file — a line of people
  22. cold — not warm
  23. drill — the tool
  24. present — there

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