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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 met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. Where did you ________________ them?
  18. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. fine — high quality
  3. prune — to trim
  4. fine — all right
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. wound — an injury
  7. game — wild animals
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. snap — to click
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. fine — a penalty
  12. mine — for digging
  13. wound — an injury
  14. mug — a cup
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. prune — to trim
  17. mug — to rob
  18. mug — a face
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. cold — an illness
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. game — a match
  23. cold — not warm
  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