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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: last · spring · cap · fork · ground · kid · wound · land

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. land — to come down
  3. last — to go on
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. spring — the season
  6. wound — an injury
  7. ground — the earth
  8. cap — a lid
  9. spring — a coil
  10. cap — of ice
  11. last — finally
  12. kid — child
  13. ground — crushed
  14. cap — a hat
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. last — final
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. wound — an injury
  19. ground — a position
  20. kid — to tease
  21. spring — of water
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. fork — in a road
  24. land — a country

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