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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: cold · field · wound · wind · chip · prune · fan · pitcher

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. field — a subject
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. field — farmland
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cold — not warm
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. field — for sport
  10. chip — in a computer
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. wound — an injury
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. chip — to eat
  15. wound — an injury
  16. prune — to trim
  17. wind — moving air
  18. prune — to trim
  19. chip — for betting
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. wind — moving air

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