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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: cell · hand · cold · mark · track · squash · tear · field

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cell — a phone
  3. squash — the sport
  4. tear — from crying
  5. tear — to rip
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cell — in biology
  8. mark — a grade
  9. hand — in cards
  10. field — farmland
  11. track — to keep track
  12. squash — to crush
  13. mark — a trace
  14. tear — from crying
  15. mark — to pay attention
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. track — a path
  19. field — a subject
  20. hand — help
  21. squash — the vegetable
  22. field — for sport
  23. cold — an illness
  24. track — a song

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