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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 120 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: coach · drill · kick · field · shower · cold · pop · saw

  1. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. Have you met the new head ________________?
  18. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  19. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. field — farmland
  3. pop — music
  4. drill — a practice
  5. saw — the tool
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. drill — the tool
  8. drill — army training
  9. field — a subject
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. cold — an illness
  12. pop — to visit
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. shower — to wash
  15. shower — rain
  16. pop — soda
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. kick — a thrill
  19. coach — pulled by horses
  20. cold — not warm
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. field — for sport
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. kick — in football

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