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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: ground · cell · field · kid · bass · temple · present · band

  1. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. When was this ________________ built?
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. bass — the fish
  3. field — a subject
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. cell — a phone
  6. ground — a position
  7. bass — low music
  8. kid — to tease
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. kid — child
  11. ground — the earth
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. band — a ring
  14. present — there
  15. field — farmland
  16. present — the time now
  17. band — a music group
  18. field — for sport
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. ground — crushed
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. present — a gift
  23. cell — in biology
  24. temple — side of the head

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