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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: spring · field · cold · rock · bank · bat · face · hand

  1. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.

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

Answer key

  1. bank — for money
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. bank — of a river
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. rock — music
  7. spring — the season
  8. spring — of water
  9. hand — in cards
  10. cold — not warm
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. hand — help
  13. field — farmland
  14. field — a subject
  15. face — to point toward
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. bat — the animal
  18. spring — a coil
  19. rock — a stone
  20. cold — an illness
  21. face — part of the head
  22. face — to confront
  23. field — for sport
  24. bank — for money

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