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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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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: cold · nail · band · ground · court · march · press · field

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. The ________________ went through the wall.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Did you ________________ the button?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  11. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. cold — an illness
  3. court — for sport
  4. nail — on a finger
  5. ground — the earth
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. press — to push
  9. cold — not warm
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. press — newspapers
  12. band — a ring
  13. ground — crushed
  14. court — of a king
  15. band — a music group
  16. field — farmland
  17. ground — a position
  18. field — for sport
  19. march — music
  20. press — a publisher
  21. march — the month
  22. field — a subject
  23. court — of law
  24. band — a rubber band

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