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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. There's no middle ________________.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. ground — a position
  3. file — a line of people
  4. spell — a short time
  5. rash — a series
  6. spell — magic
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. file — a document
  10. tear — from crying
  11. file — a tool
  12. prune — to trim
  13. ground — the earth
  14. tear — from crying
  15. prune — to trim
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. cell — in biology
  19. ground — crushed
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. branch — a division
  22. tear — to rip
  23. spell — letters
  24. cell — a phone

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