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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: date · object · chair · prune · cold · land · wake · stick

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  6. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  17. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. chair — a leader
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. object — an aim
  7. cold — not warm
  8. stick — to attach or keep to
  9. land — ground
  10. cold — an illness
  11. prune — to trim
  12. date — on the calendar
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. date — the fruit
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. stick — a piece of wood
  17. object — a thing
  18. land — to come down
  19. object — to protest
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. prune — to trim
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. wake — a trail

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