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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. David sat on the ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. straw — to clutch at straws
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. file — a document
  5. prune — to trim
  6. swing — in golf
  7. capital — money
  8. file — a tool
  9. field — farmland
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. rush — hurry
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. file — a line of people
  14. band — a ring
  15. field — for sport
  16. capital — a city
  17. swing — music
  18. field — a subject
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. band — a music group
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. swing — to play on
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. rush — a thrill

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