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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: net · shower · ruler · field · tear · drill · spring · cold

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. drill — army training
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. cold — an illness
  5. ruler — a monarch
  6. net — after costs
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. net — for catching
  9. shower — rain
  10. tear — from crying
  11. field — farmland
  12. field — a subject
  13. drill — a practice
  14. cold — not warm
  15. ruler — for measuring
  16. spring — a coil
  17. spring — of water
  18. tear — to rip
  19. spring — the season
  20. drill — the tool
  21. tear — from crying
  22. net — in sport
  23. shower — to wash
  24. ruler — for measuring

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