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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  5. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. Did you ________________ the meat?
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. tear — from crying
  4. season — of the year
  5. root — of a word
  6. season — in sport
  7. season — to add flavour
  8. cold — an illness
  9. tear — from crying
  10. pop — music
  11. court — of law
  12. prune — to trim
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. pop — soda
  16. prune — to trim
  17. root — of a plant
  18. court — of a king
  19. pop — to visit
  20. court — for sport
  21. racket — a loud noise
  22. root — the cause
  23. tear — to rip
  24. cold — the Cold War

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