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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: wound · pop · band · rest · prune · bark · bat · straw

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. rest — a break
  4. band — a music group
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. bat — the animal
  7. rest — what's left
  8. wound — an injury
  9. pop — soda
  10. bark — to shout
  11. pop — to visit
  12. band — a ring
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. pop — music
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. prune — to trim
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. rest — what's left
  22. prune — to trim
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. bat — in an idiom

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