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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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. My mare is ________________ in color.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. prune — to trim
  3. file — a document
  4. cold — not warm
  5. file — a line of people
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. file — a tool
  8. cold — an illness
  9. spell — a short time
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. bay — a part of the sea
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. spell — letters
  14. bay — a horse colour
  15. spell — magic
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. bay — to keep at bay
  21. prune — to trim
  22. trunk — of a car
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. capital — a city

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