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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. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. spring — of water
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. spring — a coil
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. lie — to recline
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. wound — an injury
  12. prune — to trim
  13. lie — an untruth
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. ground — a position
  16. spring — the season
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — not warm
  20. ground — the earth
  21. ground — crushed
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. bat — the animal
  24. wound — an injury

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