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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 124 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. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. bass — low music
  3. bark — to shout
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. wound — an injury
  6. cap — a lid
  7. cap — of ice
  8. degree — from a university
  9. prune — to trim
  10. wound — an injury
  11. clip — to cut
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. degree — an amount
  14. cap — a hat
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. clip — a video
  19. clip — for paper
  20. kick — in football
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. bass — the fish
  23. degree — temperature
  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