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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. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — the fruit
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. clip — to cut
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. cell — in biology
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. sharp — clever
  9. wake — a trail
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. clip — a video
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. cold — not warm
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. prune — to trim
  16. bat — the animal
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cell — a phone
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. coach — pulled by horses
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. prune — to trim
  24. clip — for paper

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