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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: kid · clip · root · shower · prune · branch · rush · trunk

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. That must've been a ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  11. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. branch — a division
  3. clip — for paper
  4. kid — to tease
  5. rush — hurry
  6. rush — a thrill
  7. prune — to trim
  8. kid — child
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. root — of a word
  11. rush — to hurry
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. prune — to trim
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. root — the cause
  19. shower — to wash
  20. shower — rain
  21. clip — a video
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. trunk — of a car
  24. root — of a plant

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