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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. cold — not warm
  3. root — of a plant
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. cold — an illness
  6. pit — a hole
  7. mine — for digging
  8. squash — the sport
  9. root — of a word
  10. mate — a partner
  11. prune — to trim
  12. mate — a friend
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. prune — to trim
  20. root — the cause
  21. squash — to crush
  22. mate — to breed
  23. pit — in a race
  24. mine — belonging to me

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