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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. prune — to trim
  3. tube — the underground
  4. row — to paddle
  5. stock — goods
  6. game — a match
  7. tear — to rip
  8. hand — in cards
  9. saw — the tool
  10. game — wild animals
  11. row — a line
  12. stock — shares
  13. saw — the tool
  14. tube — a container
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. tear — from crying
  18. hand — help
  19. tear — from crying
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. stock — a soup base
  24. game — a kind of play

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