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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: game · pitcher · fall · band · file · cell · spring · field

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. cell — a phone
  3. fall — the season
  4. fall — to drop
  5. spring — the season
  6. spring — a coil
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. game — a match
  9. game — wild animals
  10. band — a ring
  11. field — for sport
  12. spring — of water
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. fall — to drop
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. field — a subject
  17. file — a tool
  18. field — farmland
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. file — a line of people
  22. cell — in biology
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. file — a document

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