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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: track · mine · land · snap · fall · chair · bark · file

  1. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. file — a tool
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. track — a path
  7. land — a country
  8. snap — to click
  9. fall — to drop
  10. mine — for digging
  11. land — ground
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. chair — a leader
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. track — to keep track
  16. file — a document
  17. fall — to drop
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. track — a song
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. fall — the season
  22. land — to come down
  23. file — a line of people
  24. bark — to shout

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