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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 120 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: vault · fork · bass · ground · cold · patient · prune · row

  1. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  23. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. bass — low music
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. prune — to trim
  6. cold — an illness
  7. prune — to trim
  8. fork — in a road
  9. patient — calm and waiting
  10. ground — crushed
  11. cold — not warm
  12. row — to paddle
  13. bass — the fish
  14. row — a line
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. ground — a position
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. vault — in gymnastics
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. vault — an arched ceiling
  23. vault — a safe
  24. cold — the Cold War

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