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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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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 · clip · face · bat · file · cold · prune · root

  1. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.

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

Answer key

  1. root — of a plant
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bat — the animal
  4. clip — to cut
  5. cold — an illness
  6. root — the cause
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. file — a document
  9. prune — to trim
  10. clip — for paper
  11. face — to point toward
  12. cold — not warm
  13. clip — a video
  14. face — to confront
  15. file — a tool
  16. fall — the season
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. prune — to trim
  20. fall — to drop
  21. face — part of the head
  22. file — a line of people
  23. fall — to drop
  24. root — of a word

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