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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: kid · field · pitch · coach · cold · press · wax · bat

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. Did you ________________ the button?
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  21. Have you met the new head ________________?
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. pitch — a sales talk
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. kid — child
  5. coach — pulled by horses
  6. field — for sport
  7. press — a publisher
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. press — newspapers
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. press — to push
  13. kid — to tease
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — not warm
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. pitch — completely
  18. field — farmland
  19. wax — to grow
  20. wax — in the ear
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. field — a subject
  23. bat — the animal
  24. cold — the Cold War

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