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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. prune — to trim
  5. cell — a phone
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. wind — moving air
  8. hand — help
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. wind — moving air
  11. fall — to drop
  12. march — music
  13. fall — to drop
  14. content — happy
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. content — the amount
  18. march — the month
  19. wound — an injury
  20. fall — the season
  21. prune — to trim
  22. hand — in cards
  23. cell — in biology
  24. march — the month

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