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

  1. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. field — for sport
  5. prune — to trim
  6. spring — of water
  7. bore — to drill
  8. spring — the season
  9. prune — to trim
  10. bore — gave birth
  11. field — a subject
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. spring — a coil
  14. bore — to tire
  15. wind — moving air
  16. game — wild animals
  17. game — a match
  18. band — a music group
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. band — a ring
  21. field — farmland
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. wind — moving air
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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