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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.

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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: straw · ruler · pitcher · land · field · prune · march · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  18. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. prune — to trim
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. field — a subject
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. march — the month
  7. march — music
  8. march — the month
  9. land — to come down
  10. prune — to trim
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. ruler — for measuring
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. cold — not warm
  16. field — for sport
  17. ruler — a monarch
  18. ruler — for measuring
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. land — ground
  22. land — a country
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. field — farmland

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