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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I'll be taking the ________________.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  14. When was this ________________ built?
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  17. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. temple — side of the head
  4. prune — to trim
  5. hand — in cards
  6. hand — help
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. tube — the underground
  11. band — a ring
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. bore — gave birth
  14. temple — a place of worship
  15. tube — a container
  16. bore — to drill
  17. bore — to tire
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — an illness
  21. fork — a garden tool
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. band — a music group
  24. fork — in a road

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