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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: pit · spell · cold · bat · ground · prune · wound · wax

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. prune — to trim
  4. prune — to trim
  5. wound — an injury
  6. ground — a position
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. pit — a hole
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. wound — an injury
  12. spell — a short time
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. spell — magic
  15. spell — letters
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. ground — the earth
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. pit — in a race
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. wax — to grow

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