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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: prune · snap · cell · face · tear · kid

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. tear — from crying
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. cell — a phone
  5. face — to point toward
  6. tear — to rip
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. tear — from crying
  9. prune — to trim
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. snap — to click
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. face — part of the head
  14. kid — child
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. prune — to trim
  17. cell — in biology
  18. kid — to tease

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