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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. spring — of water
  4. drill — the tool
  5. spring — a coil
  6. clip — for paper
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. wake — a trail
  9. spring — the season
  10. snap — to click
  11. field — farmland
  12. clip — to cut
  13. craft — a skill
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. drill — army training
  16. drill — a practice
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. craft — boats
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. clip — a video
  21. craft — a handicraft
  22. field — for sport
  23. field — a subject
  24. prune — to trim

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