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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 120 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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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: game · fall · cold · field · cell · temple · bat · perch

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. When was this ________________ built?
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. game — a match
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. field — a subject
  5. game — wild animals
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. field — farmland
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. field — for sport
  10. cell — a phone
  11. temple — a place of worship
  12. perch — the fish
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. fall — to drop
  19. cell — in biology
  20. fall — to drop
  21. cold — not warm
  22. cold — an illness
  23. temple — side of the head
  24. fall — the season

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