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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 116 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 · cold · land · prune · vault · season · dip

  1. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  4. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Did you ________________ the meat?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — the fruit
  2. prune — to trim
  3. season — of the year
  4. vault — a safe
  5. cold — not warm
  6. dip — a sauce
  7. cold — an illness
  8. land — ground
  9. prune — to trim
  10. vault — an arched ceiling
  11. season — in sport
  12. dip — to sink
  13. clip — for paper
  14. kid — child
  15. land — to come down
  16. season — to add flavour
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. dip — to dunk
  19. kid — to tease
  20. clip — a video
  21. clip — to cut
  22. vault — in gymnastics
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. land — a country

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