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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  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. cold — an illness
  2. trunk — of a tree
  3. mate — a friend
  4. mate — to breed
  5. clip — for paper
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. fork — in a road
  9. wax — to grow
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. mate — a partner
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. clip — a video
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. cold — not warm
  16. prune — to trim
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. scale — in music
  19. scale — size or range
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. fork — a garden tool
  22. clip — to cut
  23. scale — for weighing
  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