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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: cold · straw · pitcher · drill · board · field · firm · saw

  1. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  9. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  14. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. board — a committee
  3. field — a subject
  4. saw — the tool
  5. board — a flat piece
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. saw — the tool
  8. board — to get on
  9. firm — decided
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. drill — the tool
  13. firm — a company
  14. firm — steady
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. field — farmland
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — not warm
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. field — for sport
  21. drill — army training
  22. drill — a practice
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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