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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 cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. kid — to tease
  4. net — in sport
  5. game — a match
  6. cell — in biology
  7. tear — to rip
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. kid — child
  11. cell — a phone
  12. file — a tool
  13. net — for catching
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. tear — from crying
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. prune — to trim
  20. game — wild animals
  21. file — a line of people
  22. net — after costs
  23. tear — from crying
  24. file — a document

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