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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. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  2. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  3. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  14. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  19. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?

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

Answer key

  1. object — to protest
  2. bore — gave birth
  3. stem — a stem cell
  4. stem — to come from
  5. spring — a coil
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. spring — the season
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. content — happy
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. content — the amount
  12. spring — of water
  13. object — an aim
  14. bore — to drill
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. cold — an illness
  17. capital — a city
  18. object — a thing
  19. branch — a division
  20. capital — money
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. cold — not warm
  24. bore — to tire

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