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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. What do you think of the new ________________?
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — ministers
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. file — a line of people
  4. prune — to trim
  5. spring — a coil
  6. spring — the season
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. prune — to trim
  9. cold — an illness
  10. court — of law
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. file — a tool
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. bat — the animal
  15. file — a document
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. cabinet — ministers
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cabinet — a cupboard
  22. court — of a king
  23. spring — of water
  24. court — for sport

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