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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 would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  13. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  18. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. pass — to succeed
  3. chest — of your body
  4. stem — to come from
  5. trunk — of an elephant
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. last — finally
  8. last — to go on
  9. chest — a box
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. chest — of your body
  12. rest — what's left
  13. pass — a permit
  14. wound — an injury
  15. pass — to spend time
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. band — a ring
  18. rest — what's left
  19. last — final
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. wound — an injury
  22. band — a music group
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. stem — of a plant

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