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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: tear · mug · craft · field · file · cold · band · rest

  1. Where did you ________________ them?
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.

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

Answer key

  1. mug — to rob
  2. rest — a break
  3. craft — a handicraft
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. mug — a face
  6. band — a music group
  7. cold — not warm
  8. band — a ring
  9. rest — what's left
  10. field — a subject
  11. field — farmland
  12. rest — what's left
  13. craft — a skill
  14. tear — to rip
  15. file — a tool
  16. file — a line of people
  17. field — for sport
  18. file — a document
  19. tear — from crying
  20. mug — a cup
  21. cold — an illness
  22. tear — from crying
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. craft — boats

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