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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: chest · row · stand · land · cold · prune · date · season

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. I can't ________________ this cold.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Did you ________________ the meat?
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  8. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  11. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  24. Have you settled on a ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. stand — to bear
  3. land — a country
  4. season — to add flavour
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. chest — of your body
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. stand — for spectators
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. season — of the year
  11. date — the fruit
  12. prune — to trim
  13. row — to paddle
  14. row — a line
  15. chest — a box
  16. cold — an illness
  17. stand — on your feet
  18. cold — not warm
  19. land — ground
  20. land — to come down
  21. prune — to trim
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. season — in sport
  24. date — on the calendar

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