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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: chest · field · lean · band · sharp · court · cold · wake

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. lean — thin
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. cold — not warm
  6. lean — to rest against
  7. band — a ring
  8. court — of law
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. sharp — clever
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. field — farmland
  15. chest — of your body
  16. chest — a box
  17. court — of a king
  18. lean — to bend
  19. field — a subject
  20. field — for sport
  21. wake — a trail
  22. chest — of your body
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. court — for sport

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