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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  13. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. land — to come down
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. track — a path
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. field — for sport
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. field — farmland
  10. track — to keep track
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. chip — for betting
  13. chip — in a computer
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. mine — for digging
  16. fork — in a road
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. field — a subject
  19. land — ground
  20. land — a country
  21. track — a song
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. band — a music group
  24. chip — to eat

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