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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. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The tickets are free of ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. degree — an amount
  3. charge — a price
  4. last — final
  5. charge — electricity
  6. spring — of water
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. degree — temperature
  9. cell — a phone
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. charge — in control
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. wind — moving air
  14. wind — moving air
  15. last — to go on
  16. spring — the season
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. spring — a coil
  20. prune — to trim
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. cell — in biology
  23. last — finally
  24. degree — from a university

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