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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. wind — moving air
  3. cold — not warm
  4. sharp — clever
  5. prune — to trim
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. last — to go on
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. trunk — of an elephant
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. squash — the sport
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. prune — to trim
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. squash — to crush
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. last — finally
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. cold — an illness
  22. wind — moving air
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. trunk — of a tree

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