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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  3. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. pit — a fruit stone
  3. branch — a division
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. spring — the season
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. spring — a coil
  8. wound — an injury
  9. wake — a trail
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. pit — a hole
  13. pit — in a race
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. date — the fruit
  16. field — for sport
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. wound — an injury
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. spring — of water
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. field — a subject
  23. fork — in a road
  24. branch — of a tree

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