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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. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. stem — a stem cell
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. wind — moving air
  5. fall — to drop
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. cold — an illness
  13. stem — to come from
  14. kid — child
  15. fall — to drop
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. fall — the season
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. coach — pulled by horses
  21. wind — moving air
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. prune — to trim
  24. kid — to tease

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