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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. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. degree — an amount
  4. spring — the season
  5. pop — soda
  6. object — an aim
  7. spring — of water
  8. object — a thing
  9. game — a match
  10. game — wild animals
  11. pop — to visit
  12. degree — temperature
  13. pop — music
  14. object — to protest
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. spring — a coil
  17. cold — an illness
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. degree — from a university
  20. prune — to trim
  21. cold — not warm
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. game — a kind of play

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