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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. You don't need to ________________ round.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. We're almost out of ________________.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. The ________________ took off on time.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. cold — not warm
  3. prune — to trim
  4. plane — in geometry
  5. net — for catching
  6. pop — to visit
  7. net — after costs
  8. file — a document
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. snap — to click
  11. track — a song
  12. cold — an illness
  13. plane — a tool
  14. pop — soda
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. track — a path
  17. file — a line of people
  18. net — in sport
  19. prune — to trim
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. pop — music
  22. track — to keep track
  23. plane — an aircraft
  24. file — a tool

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