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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: shower · patient · clip · sharp · kid · pound · rule · prune

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  11. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  15. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  16. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  17. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  18. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. prune — to trim
  3. clip — a video
  4. clip — for paper
  5. rule — a law
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. prune — to trim
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. patient — calm and waiting
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. shower — to wash
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. rule — government
  15. pound — a weight
  16. pound — to hit hard
  17. pound — for dogs
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. shower — rain
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. clip — to cut
  22. kid — child
  23. sharp — clever
  24. rule — to rule out

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