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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: prune · drill · content · fall · file · land · pop · arm

  1. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. My father caught me by the ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — videos and posts
  2. content — happy
  3. pop — to visit
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. pop — soda
  6. prune — to trim
  7. prune — to trim
  8. drill — the tool
  9. fall — to drop
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. land — to come down
  12. fall — to drop
  13. arm — part of the body
  14. land — ground
  15. drill — army training
  16. file — a tool
  17. arm — a part of something
  18. file — a document
  19. drill — a practice
  20. fall — the season
  21. content — the amount
  22. pop — music
  23. land — a country
  24. file — a line of people

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