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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  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. kick — a thrill
  2. branch — a division
  3. kick — in football
  4. file — a line of people
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. tear — to rip
  7. field — for sport
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. field — a subject
  10. field — farmland
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — an illness
  13. file — a document
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. file — a tool
  16. prune — to trim
  17. cold — not warm
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. tear — from crying
  21. tear — from crying
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. branch — of a tree
  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