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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 116 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: trunk · club · cold · kick · wound · prune · shower · tube

  1. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  13. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. shower — to wash
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. club — for dancing
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. kick — in football
  8. cold — an illness
  9. prune — to trim
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. kick — with a leg
  13. tube — in a tire
  14. tube — the underground
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — not warm
  17. club — for golf
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. club — a group
  21. shower — rain
  22. tube — a container
  23. wound — an injury
  24. wound — an injury

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