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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 116 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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. Don't do anything ________________.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. prune — to trim
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. prune — to trim
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. wind — moving air
  9. wind — moving air
  10. fall — to drop
  11. fall — to drop
  12. kick — a thrill
  13. spring — the season
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. spring — of water
  16. kick — in football
  17. game — a match
  18. rash — hasty
  19. fall — the season
  20. spring — a coil
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. fork — in a road
  23. rash — a series
  24. game — wild animals

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