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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. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  20. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. squash — the vegetable
  3. snap — to click
  4. mark — a grade
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. field — for sport
  8. squash — the sport
  9. prune — to trim
  10. squash — to crush
  11. hand — help
  12. chest — a box
  13. chest — of your body
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. field — a subject
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. prune — to trim
  18. hand — in cards
  19. mark — to pay attention
  20. mark — a trace
  21. field — farmland
  22. spring — a coil
  23. spring — of water
  24. chest — of your body

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