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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: prune · wind · field · ground · coach · race · hand · march

  1. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. field — a subject
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. field — farmland
  5. race — the arms race
  6. wind — moving air
  7. march — the month
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. hand — in cards
  10. race — a contest
  11. march — the month
  12. ground — a position
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. field — for sport
  15. prune — to trim
  16. hand — help
  17. wind — moving air
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. ground — crushed
  20. ground — the earth
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. race — humankind
  23. prune — to trim
  24. march — music

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