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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. pass — to succeed
  3. land — ground
  4. chip — to eat
  5. shower — to wash
  6. band — a music group
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. pass — a permit
  10. mine — for digging
  11. land — to come down
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. chip — for betting
  14. land — a country
  15. band — a ring
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. branch — a division
  19. branch — of a tree
  20. field — for sport
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. field — a subject
  23. shower — rain
  24. pass — to spend time

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