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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: spring · kid · clip · net · prune · last · mine · bass

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. clip — to cut
  3. mine — for digging
  4. net — after costs
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. kid — child
  7. last — finally
  8. last — to go on
  9. last — final
  10. spring — a coil
  11. prune — to trim
  12. prune — to trim
  13. spring — of water
  14. clip — for paper
  15. clip — a video
  16. spring — the season
  17. net — for catching
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. net — in sport
  20. bass — the fish
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. kid — to tease
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. bass — low music

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