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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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Word bank
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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: clip · prune · rest · field · shower · hide · cap · bat

  1. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. rest — a break
  4. cap — a lid
  5. cap — a hat
  6. shower — rain
  7. rest — what's left
  8. clip — to cut
  9. cap — of ice
  10. prune — to trim
  11. prune — to trim
  12. hide — animal skin
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. field — a subject
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. bat — the animal
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. field — farmland
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. clip — for paper
  21. clip — a video
  22. field — for sport
  23. shower — to wash
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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