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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. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. We're almost out of ________________.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. You don't need to ________________ round.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. prune — to trim
  3. prune — to trim
  4. root — of a word
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. last — finally
  7. cold — an illness
  8. lean — to rest against
  9. last — final
  10. pop — soda
  11. last — to go on
  12. root — the cause
  13. cold — not warm
  14. tear — from crying
  15. root — of a plant
  16. tear — to rip
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. tear — from crying
  19. lean — to bend
  20. file — a document
  21. file — a line of people
  22. pop — to visit
  23. file — a tool
  24. pop — music

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