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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: land · lash · bat · pound · last · rule · field · kid

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  10. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. rule — a law
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. last — to go on
  5. last — final
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. field — a subject
  8. bat — the animal
  9. rule — government
  10. lash — an eyelash
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. field — for sport
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. lash — a whip stroke
  15. land — to come down
  16. pound — a weight
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. rule — to rule out
  19. field — farmland
  20. land — ground
  21. kid — child
  22. last — finally
  23. land — a country
  24. pound — for dogs

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