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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. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — a stem cell
  2. stem — to come from
  3. swing — to play on
  4. stem — of a plant
  5. branch — a division
  6. chest — of your body
  7. wound — an injury
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. clip — for paper
  11. mine — for digging
  12. clip — to cut
  13. bark — to shout
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. chest — a box
  16. branch — of a tree
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. swing — in golf
  19. swing — music
  20. clip — a video
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. wound — an injury
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. chest — of your body

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