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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: last · squash · cold · perch · capital · prune · spring · field

  1. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  2. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — to crush
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. field — farmland
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. field — a subject
  7. spring — of water
  8. prune — to trim
  9. spring — a coil
  10. capital — a city
  11. prune — to trim
  12. last — final
  13. squash — the sport
  14. perch — the fish
  15. field — for sport
  16. cold — not warm
  17. capital — money
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. cold — an illness
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. spring — the season
  22. last — finally
  23. last — to go on
  24. prune — the fruit

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