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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: mine · perch · pitch · spring · racket · band · snap · field

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. field — farmland
  4. band — a ring
  5. racket — a loud noise
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. band — a music group
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. spring — a coil
  10. racket — for tennis
  11. field — for sport
  12. spring — the season
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. mine — for digging
  16. pitch — completely
  17. perch — the fish
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. field — a subject
  22. spring — of water
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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