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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 120 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. The water is too ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. cold — not warm
  3. drill — a practice
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. prune — to trim
  7. perch — the fish
  8. drill — army training
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. prune — to trim
  11. spring — a coil
  12. drill — the tool
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. spring — the season
  17. fall — to drop
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. cold — an illness
  20. bark — to shout
  21. fall — to drop
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. fall — the season
  24. bark — of a tree

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