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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: mate · cold · vault · pitch · prune · pound · file · land

  1. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  18. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. prune — to trim
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. land — to come down
  5. land — ground
  6. vault — an arched ceiling
  7. land — a country
  8. mate — a friend
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. file — a document
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. prune — to trim
  13. file — a tool
  14. vault — in gymnastics
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — not warm
  17. pitch — completely
  18. vault — a safe
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. file — a line of people
  21. pound — to hit hard
  22. pound — a weight
  23. mate — to breed
  24. cold — an illness

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