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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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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: date · last · bound · clip · prune · cold · trunk · ground

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. That was ________________ to happen.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. ground — a position
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. bound — tied together
  6. last — to go on
  7. prune — to trim
  8. clip — to cut
  9. cold — an illness
  10. ground — crushed
  11. last — final
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. bound — certain
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. last — finally
  16. ground — the earth
  17. date — the fruit
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. bound — obliged
  21. clip — for paper
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. clip — a video
  24. prune — to trim

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