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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 120 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. When was this ________________ built?
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. chest — of your body
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. wind — moving air
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. field — a subject
  7. field — for sport
  8. chest — a box
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. club — for dancing
  11. land — ground
  12. trunk — of a tree
  13. club — a group
  14. temple — side of the head
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. land — to come down
  18. field — farmland
  19. bark — to shout
  20. chest — of your body
  21. club — for golf
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. land — a country
  24. wind — moving air

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