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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: lie · pop · bat · cap · cold · prune · fork · game

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  24. You don't need to ________________ round.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cap — of ice
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cap — a lid
  5. prune — to trim
  6. prune — to trim
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. game — wild animals
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. game — a match
  11. pop — soda
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. fork — in a road
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bat — the animal
  18. pop — music
  19. lie — an untruth
  20. cap — a hat
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. lie — to recline
  24. pop — to visit

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