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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 116 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: cold · spell · tear · prune · bank · file · pop · clip

  1. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. tear — from crying
  3. clip — to cut
  4. pop — to visit
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. spell — magic
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. prune — to trim
  9. pop — music
  10. bank — for money
  11. cold — an illness
  12. clip — a video
  13. tear — from crying
  14. file — a document
  15. pop — soda
  16. spell — letters
  17. bank — of a river
  18. file — a line of people
  19. bank — for money
  20. clip — for paper
  21. cold — not warm
  22. file — a tool
  23. prune — to trim
  24. tear — to rip

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