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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. I can't ________________ this cold.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. cold — an illness
  3. sharp — clever
  4. stand — for spectators
  5. land — ground
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. wound — an injury
  8. cold — not warm
  9. wound — an injury
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. land — to come down
  12. bat — the animal
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. land — a country
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. stand — on your feet
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. stand — to bear

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