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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: spring · chair · drill · field · trunk · stem · wind · ground

  1. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. field — farmland
  4. spring — of water
  5. wind — moving air
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. chair — a leader
  8. ground — the earth
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. wind — moving air
  11. stem — a stem cell
  12. field — for sport
  13. drill — army training
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. field — a subject
  16. stem — to come from
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. spring — the season
  19. ground — crushed
  20. spring — a coil
  21. ground — a position
  22. drill — a practice
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. wind — to turn a key

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