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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: arm · pound · cold · spring · fan · field · nail · game

  1. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. The ________________ went through the wall.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  24. My father caught me by the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. spring — the season
  4. nail — for a hammer
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. nail — on a finger
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. game — wild animals
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. field — for sport
  13. arm — a part of something
  14. pound — a weight
  15. cold — an illness
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. spring — a coil
  18. spring — of water
  19. fan — to cool the air
  20. field — farmland
  21. game — a match
  22. field — a subject
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. arm — part of the body

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