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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. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. season — in sport
  4. pop — soda
  5. content — the amount
  6. content — happy
  7. prune — to trim
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. cold — an illness
  11. clip — a video
  12. pop — to visit
  13. clip — for paper
  14. wound — an injury
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cold — not warm
  17. racket — a loud noise
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. clip — to cut
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. prune — to trim
  23. season — of the year
  24. pop — music

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