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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: field · spring · straw · mark · cold · rash · branch · rock

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  9. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. branch — a division
  4. rash — hasty
  5. field — for sport
  6. field — farmland
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. mark — a grade
  9. rash — a series
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. rash — on the skin
  12. spring — of water
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. mark — a trace
  16. cold — not warm
  17. rock — a stone
  18. spring — a coil
  19. mark — to pay attention
  20. spring — the season
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. rock — to move gently
  23. field — a subject
  24. cold — an illness

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