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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: wind · tear · prune · field · drill · cell · can · chest

  1. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. can — a tin
  2. chest — of your body
  3. can — to be able to
  4. drill — a practice
  5. field — a subject
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. chest — of your body
  8. wind — moving air
  9. can — a tin
  10. drill — army training
  11. prune — to trim
  12. tear — from crying
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. field — farmland
  15. chest — a box
  16. cell — a phone
  17. tear — to rip
  18. cell — in biology
  19. tear — from crying
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. prune — to trim
  22. drill — the tool
  23. field — for sport
  24. wind — moving air

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