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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. It's one o'clock ________________.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  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. prune — to trim
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. court — for sport
  4. ball — a great time
  5. prune — to trim
  6. drill — army training
  7. chest — of your body
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. drill — a practice
  10. tear — from crying
  11. drill — the tool
  12. chest — a box
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. bat — the animal
  15. ball — a dance
  16. sharp — exactly
  17. sharp — clever
  18. court — of a king
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. court — of law
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. tear — to rip
  23. chest — of your body
  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