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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 are we going to ________________?
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. He keeps ________________ of his days.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. land — ground
  3. land — a country
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. hand — help
  6. spring — the season
  7. hand — in cards
  8. track — a song
  9. trunk — of a tree
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. field — for sport
  12. field — farmland
  13. row — a line
  14. spring — of water
  15. prune — to trim
  16. spring — a coil
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. field — a subject
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. row — to paddle
  22. track — a path
  23. prune — to trim
  24. track — to keep track

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