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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 · land · wind · band · root · bound · field · kick

  1. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. That was ________________ to happen.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  13. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — obliged
  2. chest — of your body
  3. land — a country
  4. band — a music group
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. wind — moving air
  7. field — farmland
  8. bound — certain
  9. field — for sport
  10. chest — a box
  11. land — to come down
  12. root — the cause
  13. bound — tied together
  14. root — of a plant
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. land — ground
  17. kick — in football
  18. field — a subject
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. band — a ring
  22. root — of a word
  23. chest — of your body
  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