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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: clip · chair · prune · jam · pass · bat · stem · tear

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  12. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  22. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. You can't go backstage without a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. clip — to cut
  3. tear — from crying
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. prune — to trim
  6. clip — a video
  7. stem — to come from
  8. tear — from crying
  9. chair — a leader
  10. tear — to rip
  11. pass — to spend time
  12. jam — a tight spot
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. pass — to succeed
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. bat — the animal
  20. prune — to trim
  21. jam — to spread on bread
  22. jam — in traffic
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. pass — a permit

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