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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. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  13. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  18. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — on the skin
  2. spring — a coil
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. last — final
  5. spring — of water
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. rash — a series
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. bass — low music
  13. roll — a list
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. spring — the season
  16. roll — a cake
  17. bass — the fish
  18. stem — to come from
  19. rash — hasty
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. last — to go on
  22. last — finally
  23. cell — a phone
  24. cell — in biology

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