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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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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 · club · cabinet · mine · fan · cold · squash · race

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  13. What do you think of the new ________________?
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  18. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  24. Can you turn the ________________ on?

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. squash — the sport
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. prune — to trim
  5. cabinet — a cupboard
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. club — a group
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. race — the arms race
  11. mine — for digging
  12. club — for dancing
  13. cabinet — ministers
  14. prune — to trim
  15. squash — to crush
  16. race — humankind
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. club — for golf
  19. cold — not warm
  20. race — a contest
  21. cold — an illness
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. cabinet — ministers
  24. fan — to cool the air

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