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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 120 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. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  7. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  15. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Where did you ________________ them?
  20. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  21. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — of a plant
  2. cold — not warm
  3. stem — to come from
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. degree — an amount
  6. mug — a face
  7. wake — before a funeral
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. wake — to stop sleeping
  10. wake — a trail
  11. clip — to cut
  12. cold — an illness
  13. clip — for paper
  14. bore — gave birth
  15. bore — to tire
  16. degree — temperature
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. clip — a video
  19. mug — to rob
  20. mug — a cup
  21. bore — to drill
  22. degree — from a university
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. pitch — completely

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