ClueBy
TodayArchiveWord list

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.

Make a worksheet

Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
YesNo
↻ New worksheet

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: field · march · game · coach · patient · drill · mine · degree

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. mine — for digging
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. field — a subject
  6. patient — calm and waiting
  7. game — a match
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. march — the month
  11. drill — army training
  12. game — wild animals
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. march — music
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. drill — a practice
  18. march — the month
  19. field — farmland
  20. degree — an amount
  21. drill — the tool
  22. degree — from a university
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. degree — temperature

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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