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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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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: fan · drill · cold · rush · field · saw · rock · wake

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. He works in a ________________ mill.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  19. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  20. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  21. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. field — for sport
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. rock — to move gently
  6. field — farmland
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. saw — the tool
  9. wake — a trail
  10. saw — the tool
  11. drill — the tool
  12. field — a subject
  13. rush — hurry
  14. drill — a practice
  15. drill — army training
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. wake — to stop sleeping
  19. rock — a stone
  20. rush — to hurry
  21. wake — before a funeral
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. cold — not warm

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