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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: wind · craft · firm · kid · content · degree · spell · prune

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  9. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  17. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. degree — from a university
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. spell — letters
  5. content — the amount
  6. wind — moving air
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. craft — a skill
  9. craft — boats
  10. kid — to tease
  11. wind — moving air
  12. spell — magic
  13. craft — a handicraft
  14. prune — to trim
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. firm — steady
  17. firm — decided
  18. spell — a short time
  19. firm — a company
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. prune — to trim
  22. degree — an amount
  23. kid — child
  24. degree — temperature

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