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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. content — the amount
  3. mate — to breed
  4. stem — to come from
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. march — the month
  7. march — the month
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. mate — a partner
  10. cap — a hat
  11. spring — the season
  12. mate — a friend
  13. march — music
  14. spring — of water
  15. spring — a coil
  16. row — a line
  17. shower — rain
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. row — to paddle
  21. cap — of ice
  22. cap — a lid
  23. content — happy
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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