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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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Did you ________________ the meat?
  8. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. Have you settled on a ________________?
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. wound — an injury
  3. tube — a container
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. tube — the underground
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. season — to add flavour
  8. season — in sport
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. hand — in cards
  11. stem — to come from
  12. cold — an illness
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. wind — moving air
  15. hand — help
  16. date — the fruit
  17. wind — moving air
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. wound — an injury
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. cold — not warm
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. stem — a stem cell

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