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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: fall · mine · clip · scale · prune · rock · wake · court

  1. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. fall — to drop
  3. clip — a video
  4. rock — music
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. court — of a king
  7. fall — the season
  8. prune — the fruit
  9. prune — to trim
  10. clip — for paper
  11. fall — to drop
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. rock — a stone
  17. scale — in music
  18. court — of law
  19. clip — to cut
  20. court — for sport
  21. mine — for digging
  22. rock — to move gently
  23. scale — size or range
  24. wake — a trail

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