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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: prune · squash · cold · drill · clip · game · trunk · bat

  1. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. drill — the tool
  6. squash — to crush
  7. game — wild animals
  8. clip — a video
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — not warm
  11. prune — to trim
  12. clip — to cut
  13. drill — a practice
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. game — a match
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. prune — to trim
  18. squash — the sport
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. trunk — of a tree
  21. bat — the animal
  22. drill — army training
  23. trunk — of an elephant
  24. clip — for paper

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