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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: ball · mine · cold · board · prune · land · bat · staff

  1. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  2. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  3. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  4. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a round shape
  2. staff — employees
  3. board — to get on
  4. board — a committee
  5. land — ground
  6. bat — the animal
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. ball — a dance
  10. prune — to trim
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. ball — a great time
  13. cold — an illness
  14. land — a country
  15. cold — not warm
  16. land — to come down
  17. board — a flat piece
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. staff — a stick
  21. mine — for digging
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. staff — employees
  24. prune — to trim

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