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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: shower · cell · field · nail · bat · kid · pitch · band

  1. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  20. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. pitch — a sales talk
  4. bat — the animal
  5. cell — in biology
  6. band — a music group
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. cell — a phone
  9. pitch — completely
  10. field — a subject
  11. shower — to wash
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. kid — to tease
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. field — for sport
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. pitch — a sports field
  21. band — a ring
  22. shower — rain
  23. field — farmland
  24. kid — child

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