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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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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 · band · field · tear · rest · race · saw · lean

  1. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. She's very handy with a ________________.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to rest against
  2. tear — to rip
  3. race — a contest
  4. race — humankind
  5. field — a subject
  6. tear — from crying
  7. lean — thin
  8. field — farmland
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. cold — not warm
  11. cold — an illness
  12. saw — the tool
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. lean — to bend
  16. band — a music group
  17. saw — the tool
  18. band — a ring
  19. tear — from crying
  20. race — the arms race
  21. rest — what's left
  22. rest — a break
  23. rest — what's left
  24. field — for sport

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