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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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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. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  2. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. I can't ________________ this cold.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. That was ________________ to happen.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  10. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  11. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — tied together
  2. prune — the fruit
  3. cold — an illness
  4. tear — from crying
  5. stand — to bear
  6. tear — to rip
  7. bound — certain
  8. court — for sport
  9. stand — for spectators
  10. bound — obliged
  11. stand — on your feet
  12. prune — to trim
  13. cold — not warm
  14. spring — the season
  15. drill — the tool
  16. court — of law
  17. prune — to trim
  18. spring — of water
  19. spring — a coil
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. drill — a practice
  22. court — of a king
  23. drill — army training
  24. tear — from crying

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