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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. That was ________________ to happen.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. bound — obliged
  4. game — wild animals
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. rule — a law
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. race — a contest
  9. content — happy
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. rule — to rule out
  12. bound — tied together
  13. content — the amount
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. game — a match
  16. bound — certain
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. race — humankind
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. prune — to trim
  23. rule — government
  24. race — the arms race

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