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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Have you met the new head ________________?
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. spring — a coil
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. kid — to tease
  6. bark — to shout
  7. prune — to trim
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. spring — of water
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. land — to come down
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. prune — to trim
  14. spring — the season
  15. cell — in biology
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. kid — child
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. land — ground
  23. cell — a phone
  24. land — a country

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