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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. The light ________________ burned out.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I've got to change the light ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. cold — not warm
  3. mine — for digging
  4. prune — to trim
  5. kid — to tease
  6. cap — a lid
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cap — of ice
  9. prune — to trim
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. bulb — of a plant
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. kid — child
  17. bulb — for light
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bulb — for light
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. cap — a hat
  24. wind — moving air

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