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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: wind · degree · tear · wake · prune · wound · bound · field

  1. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. That was ________________ to happen.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. bound — certain
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. degree — temperature
  6. degree — an amount
  7. wind — moving air
  8. field — a subject
  9. tear — from crying
  10. prune — to trim
  11. bound — tied together
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. wake — a trail
  14. bound — obliged
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. field — farmland
  17. wound — an injury
  18. field — for sport
  19. tear — to rip
  20. degree — from a university
  21. wind — moving air
  22. wound — an injury
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. tear — from crying

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