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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  16. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  17. I can't ________________ this cold.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. prune — to trim
  3. race — humankind
  4. prune — to trim
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. tear — to rip
  7. deal — a big deal
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. scale — size or range
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. tear — from crying
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. stand — on your feet
  14. race — a contest
  15. bowl — a football final
  16. deal — an agreement
  17. stand — to bear
  18. branch — a division
  19. tear — from crying
  20. scale — in music
  21. stand — for spectators
  22. deal — to handle
  23. race — the arms race
  24. scale — for weighing

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