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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: hand · bass · cold · mine · cell · chair · prune · wind

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. cold — not warm
  4. mine — for digging
  5. hand — in cards
  6. wind — moving air
  7. bass — the fish
  8. prune — to trim
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. wind — moving air
  11. bass — low music
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. cell — in biology
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. cold — an illness
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. hand — help
  20. prune — to trim
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. chair — a leader
  24. cell — a phone

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