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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: trunk · land · bulb · row · snap · cold · pitcher · fall

  1. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. I've got to change the light ________________.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. The light ________________ burned out.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. bulb — of a plant
  4. land — ground
  5. cold — not warm
  6. fall — the season
  7. land — to come down
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. snap — to click
  10. row — a line
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. bulb — for light
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. bulb — for light
  15. fall — to drop
  16. fall — to drop
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. row — to paddle
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. land — a country
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pitcher — a jug

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