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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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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: club · row · prune · ground · cold · tear · rash · kick

  1. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. tear — from crying
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. ground — crushed
  5. club — a group
  6. ground — a position
  7. club — for golf
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cold — not warm
  10. tear — to rip
  11. club — for dancing
  12. rash — hasty
  13. row — to paddle
  14. prune — to trim
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. rash — a series
  17. tear — from crying
  18. prune — to trim
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. kick — in football
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. row — a line
  24. ground — the earth

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