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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 · bat · staff · tear · court · spell · fall · patient

  1. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. spell — magic
  3. tear — from crying
  4. fall — the season
  5. spell — letters
  6. staff — a stick
  7. court — of a king
  8. bat — the animal
  9. prune — to trim
  10. tear — from crying
  11. fall — to drop
  12. fall — to drop
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. spell — a short time
  15. court — of law
  16. tear — to rip
  17. staff — employees
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. court — for sport
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. prune — to trim
  24. patient — a sick person

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