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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. spring — a coil
  6. spring — the season
  7. bat — the animal
  8. field — for sport
  9. chip — for betting
  10. prune — to trim
  11. hand — in cards
  12. scale — in music
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. scale — size or range
  15. field — farmland
  16. prune — to trim
  17. field — a subject
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. chip — to eat
  20. spring — of water
  21. cold — an illness
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. hand — help

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