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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: spring · fork · date · land · cell · drill

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. Have you settled on a ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. cell — in biology
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. land — ground
  5. land — a country
  6. drill — a practice
  7. cell — a phone
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. spring — a coil
  10. drill — the tool
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. fork — in a road
  13. date — the fruit
  14. spring — of water
  15. spring — the season
  16. land — to come down
  17. drill — army training
  18. date — on the calendar

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