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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. clip — for paper
  3. file — a document
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. pop — soda
  6. mate — to breed
  7. stem — to come from
  8. pop — to visit
  9. trunk — of a tree
  10. pop — music
  11. mate — a partner
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. cold — not warm
  14. file — a tool
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. clip — to cut
  17. cold — an illness
  18. file — a line of people
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. patient — calm and waiting
  23. clip — a video
  24. stem — of a plant

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