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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 120 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 · pitcher · rule · shower · cold · object · pop · prune

  1. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  7. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. object — a thing
  3. prune — to trim
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. prune — to trim
  6. object — to protest
  7. object — an aim
  8. pop — to visit
  9. rule — to rule out
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. pop — music
  13. kid — to tease
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. cold — an illness
  16. shower — to wash
  17. shower — rain
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. rule — government
  20. kid — child
  21. pop — soda
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. cold — not warm
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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