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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 · chest · stick · craft · plane · cold · land · date

  1. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  6. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  24. The ________________ took off on time.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. land — a country
  3. craft — a handicraft
  4. chest — of your body
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. date — on the calendar
  7. cold — not warm
  8. plane — in geometry
  9. land — ground
  10. chest — of your body
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. date — the fruit
  14. plane — a tool
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. trunk — of a tree
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — an illness
  19. land — to come down
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. craft — boats
  22. chest — a box
  23. craft — a skill
  24. plane — an aircraft

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