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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. He is an ace ________________.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. prune — to trim
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. band — a music group
  6. capital — money
  7. capital — a city
  8. race — the arms race
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. prune — to trim
  11. race — humankind
  12. race — a contest
  13. snap — to click
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. squash — the sport
  17. band — a ring
  18. bark — to shout
  19. squash — to crush
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. pitcher — in baseball
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. capital — a big letter

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