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

Word bank: bat · chip · fork · land · perch · cell · fall · prune

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. land — to come down
  3. land — ground
  4. prune — to trim
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. cell — in biology
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. prune — to trim
  10. fall — to drop
  11. cell — a phone
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. chip — for betting
  14. fall — to drop
  15. fall — the season
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. bat — the animal
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. chip — to eat
  20. fork — in a road
  21. land — a country
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. chip — in a computer
  24. perch — the fish

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