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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: field · straw · race · spring · bank · net · rule · bat

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  13. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. rule — to rule out
  3. net — after costs
  4. net — for catching
  5. bank — of a river
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. spring — a coil
  8. bat — the animal
  9. spring — of water
  10. net — in sport
  11. field — a subject
  12. bank — for money
  13. bank — for money
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. race — the arms race
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. rule — a law
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. field — for sport
  21. race — humankind
  22. rule — government
  23. race — a contest
  24. spring — the season

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