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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. The ________________ took off on time.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. This piece is in a major ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. spring — the season
  3. plane — an aircraft
  4. row — a line
  5. drill — a practice
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. tear — to rip
  8. bat — the animal
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. prune — to trim
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. key — the most important part
  14. spring — of water
  15. key — for a lock
  16. plane — a tool
  17. tear — from crying
  18. drill — the tool
  19. prune — to trim
  20. row — to paddle
  21. spring — a coil
  22. key — in music
  23. drill — army training
  24. plane — in geometry

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