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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. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  4. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. We're on a ________________ here.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a list
  2. degree — from a university
  3. stem — a stem cell
  4. pit — a fruit stone
  5. clip — to cut
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. cold — not warm
  9. clip — for paper
  10. cold — an illness
  11. roll — a cake
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. degree — an amount
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. degree — temperature
  17. pit — a hole
  18. clip — a video
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. row — a line
  21. row — to paddle
  22. roll — on a roll
  23. pit — in a race
  24. stem — to come from

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