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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. prune — to trim
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. game — a match
  5. cap — of ice
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. game — wild animals
  8. prune — to trim
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. file — a document
  11. cold — an illness
  12. file — a tool
  13. clip — to cut
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. cap — a hat
  16. clip — a video
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. file — a line of people
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. ball — a great time
  22. ball — a dance
  23. clip — for paper
  24. cap — a lid

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