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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. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. prune — the fruit
  3. drill — army training
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. prune — to trim
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. field — for sport
  8. sharp — clever
  9. tear — from crying
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. field — farmland
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. field — a subject
  15. prune — to trim
  16. cold — an illness
  17. tear — to rip
  18. cold — not warm
  19. game — wild animals
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. tear — from crying
  22. game — a match
  23. bark — to shout
  24. drill — a practice

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