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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 116 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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. snap — to click
  3. bass — low music
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. bass — the fish
  7. prune — to trim
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. clip — to cut
  10. clip — a video
  11. game — wild animals
  12. game — a match
  13. clip — for paper
  14. shower — to wash
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. shower — rain
  18. snap — to snap out of it

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