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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 120 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: straw · fork · kid · chair · pit · prune · cell · tear

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. chair — a leader
  3. kid — child
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. tear — from crying
  8. cell — a phone
  9. tear — from crying
  10. tear — to rip
  11. fork — in a road
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. pit — a hole
  16. prune — to trim
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. prune — to trim
  22. chair — a professorship
  23. pit — in a race
  24. cell — in biology

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