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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. stock — goods
  3. wound — an injury
  4. pound — to hit hard
  5. last — final
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. land — to come down
  8. last — finally
  9. scale — size or range
  10. pound — for dogs
  11. land — ground
  12. march — the month
  13. wound — an injury
  14. scale — in music
  15. last — to go on
  16. land — a country
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. march — the month
  19. pound — a weight
  20. stock — shares
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. prune — to trim
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. march — 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