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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  4. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  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. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. cue — a hint
  4. squash — to crush
  5. prune — to trim
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. wake — a trail
  8. cue — for pool
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. spring — the season
  12. tear — from crying
  13. cue — a signal
  14. wound — an injury
  15. cold — not warm
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. tear — from crying
  18. tear — to rip
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. spring — a coil
  21. squash — the sport
  22. spring — of water
  23. squash — the vegetable
  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