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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. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. prune — to trim
  3. mine — for digging
  4. fine — a penalty
  5. march — the month
  6. march — the month
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. swing — music
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. file — a document
  12. swing — to play on
  13. band — a ring
  14. band — a music group
  15. file — a tool
  16. fine — all right
  17. spell — letters
  18. swing — in golf
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. march — music
  21. spell — a short time
  22. prune — to trim
  23. spell — magic
  24. file — a line of people

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