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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. We're on a ________________ here.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. roll — on a roll
  3. prune — to trim
  4. race — humankind
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. band — a music group
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. cold — not warm
  10. race — the arms race
  11. roll — a list
  12. stock — shares
  13. stock — goods
  14. perch — the fish
  15. roll — a cake
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. capital — money
  18. race — a contest
  19. band — a ring
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — an illness
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. capital — a city

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