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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: press · band · field · cold · shower · saw · date · ground

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  20. Have you settled on a ________________?
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. saw — the tool
  3. field — farmland
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. saw — the tool
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. saw — past of 'see'
  8. field — for sport
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. cold — an illness
  11. ground — a position
  12. field — a subject
  13. press — to push
  14. ground — crushed
  15. cold — not warm
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. band — a ring
  18. press — newspapers
  19. press — a publisher
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. shower — to wash
  22. band — a music group
  23. ground — the earth
  24. date — the fruit

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