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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 120 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: prune · race · object · clip · field · pit · last · face

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  16. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. prune — to trim
  3. last — to go on
  4. field — farmland
  5. field — a subject
  6. clip — a video
  7. object — to protest
  8. face — part of the head
  9. race — humankind
  10. last — final
  11. object — an aim
  12. pit — in a race
  13. pit — a hole
  14. clip — to cut
  15. pit — a fruit stone
  16. object — a thing
  17. race — a contest
  18. field — for sport
  19. prune — to trim
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. face — to point toward
  22. face — to confront
  23. race — the arms race
  24. last — finally

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