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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 116 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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  7. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. stem — to come from
  3. net — after costs
  4. bat — the animal
  5. net — in sport
  6. track — to keep track
  7. track — a song
  8. band — a ring
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. net — for catching
  17. band — a music group
  18. row — to paddle
  19. track — a path
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. fall — the season
  23. fall — to drop
  24. fall — to drop

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