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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. That was ________________ to happen.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. field — for sport
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. tear — to rip
  5. patient — a sick person
  6. field — farmland
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. bound — tied together
  9. chest — of your body
  10. prune — to trim
  11. chest — a box
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. tear — from crying
  14. bound — obliged
  15. kid — child
  16. tear — from crying
  17. bound — certain
  18. chest — of your body
  19. kid — to tease
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. wake — a trail
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. field — a subject

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