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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: court · game · snap · prune · bat · squash · cold · leaves

  1. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  2. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — the fruit
  2. squash — the vegetable
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. cold — not warm
  5. court — for sport
  6. bat — the animal
  7. snap — to click
  8. game — a match
  9. game — wild animals
  10. squash — to crush
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. squash — the sport
  13. court — of a king
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. leaves — of a tree
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. leaves — to go away
  18. prune — to trim
  19. court — of law
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. cold — an illness
  22. prune — to trim
  23. leaves — lets stay
  24. game — a kind of play

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