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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: ground · straw · land · fork · bass · cold · cell · chest

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. I play ________________ in a jazz band.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cell — a phone
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. cell — in biology
  8. fork — in a road
  9. chest — of your body
  10. ground — crushed
  11. chest — of your body
  12. ground — a position
  13. ground — the earth
  14. land — a country
  15. bass — the fish
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. chest — a box
  18. land — to come down
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. bass — low music
  23. cold — an illness
  24. bass — the instrument

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