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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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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: lean · pit · pitcher · track · cell · rush · land · cold

  1. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  19. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. lean — to bend
  4. rush — hurry
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. lean — to rest against
  7. cell — a phone
  8. pit — a fruit stone
  9. track — to keep track
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — not warm
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. cell — in biology
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. cold — an illness
  17. land — a country
  18. track — a song
  19. pit — a hole
  20. track — a path
  21. pit — in a race
  22. rush — to hurry
  23. land — ground
  24. land — to come down

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