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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. clip — for paper
  3. field — farmland
  4. prune — to trim
  5. land — ground
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. field — for sport
  8. clip — to cut
  9. land — to come down
  10. field — a subject
  11. saw — the tool
  12. drill — army training
  13. drill — a practice
  14. prune — to trim
  15. chip — to eat
  16. degree — temperature
  17. degree — an amount
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. clip — a video
  21. degree — from a university
  22. chip — for betting
  23. saw — the tool
  24. drill — the tool

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