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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. Have you settled on a ________________?
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — a stem cell
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. cold — an illness
  4. date — the fruit
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. pop — soda
  7. chest — of your body
  8. pop — music
  9. drill — a practice
  10. cold — not warm
  11. chest — a box
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. bark — to shout
  15. chest — of your body
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. drill — the tool
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. pop — to visit
  21. mine — for digging
  22. stem — to come from
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. drill — army training

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