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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. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. prune — the fruit
  3. cold — an illness
  4. wound — an injury
  5. cold — not warm
  6. tear — from crying
  7. wound — an injury
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. land — ground
  10. tear — from crying
  11. branch — a division
  12. prune — to trim
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. land — a country
  15. land — to come down
  16. kid — to tease
  17. kid — child
  18. prune — to trim
  19. clip — to cut
  20. tear — to rip
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. clip — for paper
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. clip — a video

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