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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. rule — a law
  3. prune — to trim
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. leaves — to go away
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. prune — to trim
  9. degree — from a university
  10. degree — an amount
  11. row — a line
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. degree — temperature
  14. rule — to rule out
  15. cell — in biology
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. leaves — lets stay
  18. row — to paddle
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. rule — government
  21. mate — to breed
  22. mate — a friend
  23. bat — the animal
  24. cell — a phone

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