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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 124 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. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. I've got to change the light ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. The light ________________ burned out.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. prune — to trim
  3. bulb — for light
  4. prune — to trim
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. snap — to click
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. bulb — for light
  9. field — farmland
  10. field — for sport
  11. file — a document
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. bulb — of a plant
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. tear — from crying
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. file — a line of people
  19. tear — to rip
  20. file — a tool
  21. tear — from crying
  22. field — a subject
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. mine — for digging

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