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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: cabinet · cell · pitch · cold · field · bark · spring · mine

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. What do you think of the new ________________?
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. cabinet — ministers
  3. cold — not warm
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. cabinet — a cupboard
  8. mine — for digging
  9. field — a subject
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cell — a phone
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cabinet — ministers
  14. bark — to shout
  15. cell — in biology
  16. spring — a coil
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. spring — the season
  19. field — farmland
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. spring — of water
  22. pitch — completely
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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