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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: ground · band · chest · wind · prune · pound · squash · game

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. prune — to trim
  3. game — a match
  4. pound — a weight
  5. band — a ring
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. chest — a box
  8. squash — to crush
  9. pound — for dogs
  10. wind — moving air
  11. ground — crushed
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. band — a music group
  14. prune — to trim
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. chest — of your body
  17. wind — moving air
  18. chest — of your body
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. squash — the sport
  22. game — wild animals
  23. pound — to hit hard
  24. ground — the earth

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