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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. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. clip — for paper
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. squash — the sport
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. fine — a penalty
  7. prune — to trim
  8. scale — in music
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. fine — all right
  12. scale — size or range
  13. tear — from crying
  14. clip — to cut
  15. squash — to crush
  16. clip — a video
  17. tear — to rip
  18. snap — to click
  19. prune — to trim
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. fine — high quality
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. wake — a trail
  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