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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I've got to change the light ________________.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. The light ________________ burned out.
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. rush — to hurry
  3. land — to come down
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. bulb — of a plant
  7. prune — to trim
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. prune — to trim
  10. cold — not warm
  11. land — ground
  12. spell — magic
  13. land — a country
  14. wind — moving air
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bulb — for light
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. bulb — for light
  19. rush — hurry
  20. spell — a short time
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. mine — for digging
  24. spell — letters

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