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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. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. What do you think of the new ________________?
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. cabinet — ministers
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. prune — to trim
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. perch — the fish
  7. cabinet — ministers
  8. shower — to wash
  9. net — after costs
  10. clip — to cut
  11. ground — a position
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. clip — a video
  14. net — in sport
  15. net — for catching
  16. ground — the earth
  17. shower — rain
  18. mine — for digging
  19. ground — crushed
  20. clip — for paper
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. cabinet — a cupboard
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. perch — for a bird

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