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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 116 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: cell · bark · straw · wound · nail · prune · land · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  19. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. prune — to trim
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. land — to come down
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. land — ground
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. cell — a phone
  9. wound — an injury
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. land — a country
  12. cell — in biology
  13. wound — an injury
  14. bark — to shout
  15. prune — to trim
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. cold — not warm
  18. nail — on a finger
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. bark — a dog's sound

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