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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  4. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Don't do anything ________________.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. The old man leaned on his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. nail — on a finger
  4. staff — employees
  5. prune — to trim
  6. file — a tool
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. staff — employees
  9. tear — to rip
  10. spring — the season
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. rash — a series
  13. file — a document
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. branch — a division
  17. tear — from crying
  18. rash — hasty
  19. tear — from crying
  20. spring — a coil
  21. prune — to trim
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. file — a line of people
  24. staff — a stick

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