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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: field · prune · cell · mate · sharp · mine · stock · kid

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. mate — a partner
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. field — a subject
  5. kid — child
  6. mate — a friend
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. prune — to trim
  9. stock — goods
  10. stock — shares
  11. prune — to trim
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. sharp — clever
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. field — for sport
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. cell — a phone
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. mine — for digging
  21. field — farmland
  22. mate — to breed
  23. cell — in biology
  24. mine — an explosive

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