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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. rash — hasty
  3. stem — to come from
  4. swing — music
  5. stem — of a plant
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. wound — an injury
  8. spring — a coil
  9. swing — in golf
  10. wake — a trail
  11. content — the amount
  12. wound — an injury
  13. spring — of water
  14. rash — a series
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. cell — a phone
  18. swing — to play on
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. cell — in biology
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. spring — the season

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