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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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Word bank
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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: ball · field · squash · prune · date · straw · game · spring

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. I'd like to play a game of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. field — a subject
  3. ball — a dance
  4. game — wild animals
  5. squash — to crush
  6. spring — of water
  7. prune — to trim
  8. field — farmland
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. game — a match
  12. prune — to trim
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. ball — a great time
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. ball — a round shape
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. date — the fruit
  22. spring — a coil
  23. field — for sport
  24. squash — the sport

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