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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. That was ________________ to happen.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  5. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — certain
  2. cell — a phone
  3. prune — to trim
  4. bound — obliged
  5. squash — to crush
  6. cell — in biology
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. tear — from crying
  9. bat — the animal
  10. band — a music group
  11. bound — tied together
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. squash — the sport
  16. scale — size or range
  17. tear — to rip
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. tear — from crying
  20. prune — to trim
  21. scale — in music
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. band — a ring

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