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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 · court · game · chest · bat · file · dip · track

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  14. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  15. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. court — for sport
  3. file — a tool
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. game — a match
  6. track — a song
  7. prune — to trim
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. dip — a sauce
  10. chest — a box
  11. court — of law
  12. file — a line of people
  13. track — to keep track
  14. dip — to sink
  15. track — a path
  16. court — of a king
  17. chest — of your body
  18. prune — to trim
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. game — wild animals
  21. file — a document
  22. chest — of your body
  23. dip — to dunk
  24. bat — for baseball

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