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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: coach · pound · prune · bulb · band · lean · cold · clip

  1. I've got to change the light ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  17. Have you met the new head ________________?
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. The light ________________ burned out.
  22. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — for light
  2. lean — to rest against
  3. clip — to cut
  4. cold — an illness
  5. clip — for paper
  6. lean — to bend
  7. prune — to trim
  8. lean — thin
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. pound — a weight
  11. pound — for dogs
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. cold — not warm
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. clip — a video
  16. pound — to hit hard
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. band — a ring
  19. prune — to trim
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. bulb — for light
  22. bulb — of a plant
  23. band — a music group
  24. cold — the Cold War

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