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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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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: drill · band · fall · field · kid · snap · cell · pop

  1. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. We're almost out of ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. kid — to tease
  4. band — a music group
  5. fall — to drop
  6. cell — a phone
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. cell — in biology
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. pop — soda
  11. field — farmland
  12. field — for sport
  13. drill — army training
  14. drill — the tool
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. fall — the season
  17. drill — a practice
  18. field — a subject
  19. kid — child
  20. snap — to click
  21. band — a ring
  22. pop — music
  23. fall — to drop
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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