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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 · press · clip · wound · rule · hand · board · bat

  1. Did you ________________ the button?
  2. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  12. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  13. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  18. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. press — to push
  2. board — a flat piece
  3. hand — help
  4. bat — the animal
  5. clip — to cut
  6. rule — a law
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. rule — to rule out
  12. press — a publisher
  13. board — a committee
  14. wound — an injury
  15. press — newspapers
  16. hand — in cards
  17. board — to get on
  18. rule — government
  19. prune — to trim
  20. prune — to trim
  21. clip — for paper
  22. clip — a video
  23. wound — an injury
  24. bat — in an idiom

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