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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  18. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. clip — a video
  3. drill — the tool
  4. prune — to trim
  5. fine — high quality
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. club — for golf
  8. cold — not warm
  9. fine — a penalty
  10. drill — a practice
  11. club — a group
  12. drill — army training
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. bear — to put up with
  15. prune — to trim
  16. clip — to cut
  17. bear — the animal
  18. fine — all right
  19. content — happy
  20. bear — the animal
  21. cold — an illness
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. content — the amount
  24. clip — for paper

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