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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: prune · mine · wind · last · pitcher · bass · net · land

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. land — to come down
  3. last — finally
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. last — to go on
  6. net — after costs
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. land — a country
  9. mine — for digging
  10. land — ground
  11. bass — the fish
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. prune — to trim
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. wind — moving air
  17. bass — low music
  18. prune — to trim
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. net — in sport
  22. last — final
  23. net — for catching
  24. mine — belonging to me

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