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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. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. club — a group
  3. cold — an illness
  4. present — a gift
  5. prune — to trim
  6. board — a flat piece
  7. mine — for digging
  8. board — to get on
  9. prune — to trim
  10. row — a line
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. tear — from crying
  13. tear — to rip
  14. tear — from crying
  15. club — for dancing
  16. board — a committee
  17. row — to paddle
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. cold — not warm
  20. present — the time now
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. present — there
  24. mine — an explosive

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