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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. I've got to change the light ________________.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. The light ________________ burned out.
  16. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. We were using a ________________ as a seat.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. cold — an illness
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. swing — to play on
  5. prune — to trim
  6. court — for sport
  7. prune — to trim
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. lean — to bend
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. bulb — for light
  14. swing — in golf
  15. bulb — for light
  16. bulb — of a plant
  17. cold — not warm
  18. lean — thin
  19. court — of law
  20. sharp — clever
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. court — of a king
  23. swing — music
  24. rock — a stone

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