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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: wind · prune · leaves · clip · shower · fall · sharp · capital

  1. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  14. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. He's quite ________________, isn't he?

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

Answer key

  1. leaves — to go away
  2. shower — to wash
  3. prune — to trim
  4. leaves — lets stay
  5. wind — moving air
  6. prune — to trim
  7. capital — a city
  8. capital — money
  9. clip — to cut
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. wind — moving air
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. leaves — of a tree
  14. fall — the season
  15. clip — a video
  16. clip — for paper
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. shower — rain
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. fall — to drop
  22. fall — to drop
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. sharp — clever

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