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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. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  2. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — a stem cell
  2. stick — a piece of wood
  3. spell — letters
  4. spell — a short time
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. bark — to shout
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. stick — to attach or keep to
  10. stem — to come from
  11. spell — magic
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. cold — an illness
  14. sharp — clever
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. cold — not warm
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. bat — the animal
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. straw — a straw man

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