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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. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  12. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. tear — to rip
  3. chip — to eat
  4. vault — a safe
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. tear — from crying
  7. vault — an arched ceiling
  8. tube — the underground
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. field — a subject
  11. chip — in a computer
  12. chip — for betting
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. file — a line of people
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. prune — to trim
  17. file — a document
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tube — a container
  20. field — for sport
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. field — farmland
  23. vault — in gymnastics
  24. file — a tool

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