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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 was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. field — for sport
  3. chair — a leader
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. field — farmland
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. prune — to trim
  9. tear — from crying
  10. shower — rain
  11. roll — a list
  12. field — a subject
  13. roll — a cake
  14. land — ground
  15. shower — to wash
  16. tear — to rip
  17. prune — to trim
  18. land — to come down
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. tear — from crying
  21. wind — moving air
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. land — a country
  24. chair — a professorship

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