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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: ground · prune · mine · bound · bat · land · race · roll

  1. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  5. That was ________________ to happen.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. prune — to trim
  3. land — ground
  4. bound — obliged
  5. bound — certain
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. bat — the animal
  9. ground — crushed
  10. race — humankind
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. bound — tied together
  13. race — the arms race
  14. race — a contest
  15. ground — the earth
  16. ground — a position
  17. prune — to trim
  18. roll — a cake
  19. land — to come down
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. land — a country
  24. roll — a list

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