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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 120 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.

Words on the sheet
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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: wound · fall · land · scale · cell · mine · bat · saw

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. scale — for weighing
  3. fall — the season
  4. cell — in biology
  5. fall — to drop
  6. cell — a phone
  7. land — to come down
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. saw — the tool
  11. saw — the tool
  12. bat — the animal
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. scale — size or range
  16. wound — an injury
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. scale — in music
  19. mine — for digging
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wound — an injury
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. fall — to drop
  24. land — a country

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