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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 120 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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  17. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. prune — to trim
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. squash — to crush
  6. game — a match
  7. field — farmland
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. prune — to trim
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. row — a line
  15. field — for sport
  16. trunk — of a tree
  17. branch — a division
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. kid — child
  20. row — to paddle
  21. field — a subject
  22. game — wild animals
  23. kid — to tease
  24. branch — of a tree

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