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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. stem — to come from
  4. spell — letters
  5. dip — to sink
  6. tear — from crying
  7. mine — for digging
  8. dip — to dunk
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. net — after costs
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. net — in sport
  13. capital — a city
  14. spell — a short time
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. tear — to rip
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. capital — money
  21. net — for catching
  22. spell — magic
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. dip — a sauce

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