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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: chest · prune · cold · fork · spring · land · cap · club

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  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. cold — not warm
  2. spring — a coil
  3. prune — to trim
  4. cap — of ice
  5. fork — in a road
  6. spring — the season
  7. fork — to eat with
  8. land — ground
  9. chest — a box
  10. chest — of your body
  11. land — a country
  12. club — a group
  13. prune — to trim
  14. spring — of water
  15. chest — of your body
  16. cold — an illness
  17. club — for dancing
  18. cap — a hat
  19. club — for golf
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. land — to come down
  23. cap — a lid
  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