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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: lash · content · prune · season · staff · bat · clip · spring

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. spring — a coil
  3. clip — for paper
  4. bat — the animal
  5. prune — to trim
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. season — of the year
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. content — the amount
  10. staff — a stick
  11. season — in sport
  12. spring — of water
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. staff — employees
  15. prune — to trim
  16. spring — the season
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. lash — an eyelash
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. lash — a whip stroke
  21. lash — to lash out
  22. clip — a video
  23. staff — employees
  24. clip — to cut

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