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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: snap · racket · degree · fan · rash · prune · land · cold

  1. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. rash — hasty
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. land — to come down
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. cold — not warm
  8. degree — an amount
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. prune — to trim
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. rash — a series
  16. racket — a loud noise
  17. cold — an illness
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. degree — from a university
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. land — ground
  22. degree — temperature
  23. snap — to click
  24. land — a country

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