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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. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  2. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  13. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. We're on a ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — to sink
  2. dip — to dunk
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. wound — an injury
  5. spring — a coil
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. clip — a video
  8. clip — to cut
  9. prune — to trim
  10. spring — the season
  11. field — for sport
  12. roll — a list
  13. prune — to trim
  14. spring — of water
  15. roll — a cake
  16. field — a subject
  17. wound — an injury
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. clip — for paper
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. dip — a sauce
  23. field — farmland
  24. roll — on a roll

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