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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 120 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 · band · land · racket · lie · cold · straw · stock

  1. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  4. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He hit the ball with his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. field — a subject
  3. racket — for tennis
  4. racket — a loud noise
  5. land — to come down
  6. land — a country
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. land — ground
  10. lie — to recline
  11. band — a music group
  12. stock — shares
  13. cold — an illness
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. cold — not warm
  16. field — for sport
  17. band — a ring
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. field — farmland
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. stock — goods
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. racket — for tennis

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