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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 cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. kid — to tease
  3. capital — money
  4. file — a document
  5. tear — to rip
  6. tear — from crying
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. file — a line of people
  9. squash — the sport
  10. game — wild animals
  11. prune — to trim
  12. kid — child
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. file — a tool
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. tear — from crying
  17. saw — the tool
  18. capital — a city
  19. saw — the tool
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. squash — to crush
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. game — a match
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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