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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. fine — a penalty
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. prune — to trim
  5. hand — help
  6. snap — to click
  7. tear — from crying
  8. wind — moving air
  9. tear — from crying
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. hand — in cards
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. land — ground
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. land — a country
  18. wind — moving air
  19. prune — to trim
  20. wake — a trail
  21. land — to come down
  22. tear — to rip
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. fine — high quality

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