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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. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The ________________ went through the wall.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We're on a ________________ here.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  23. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. capital — a city
  3. prune — to trim
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. band — a ring
  6. date — the fruit
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. pop — to visit
  9. pop — music
  10. cold — not warm
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. cold — an illness
  15. roll — on a roll
  16. roll — a cake
  17. band — a music group
  18. prune — to trim
  19. capital — money
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. pop — soda
  22. roll — a list
  23. nail — on a finger
  24. cold — the Cold War

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