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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. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  3. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. stem — a stem cell
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. stem — to come from
  5. capital — a city
  6. bat — the animal
  7. clip — to cut
  8. clip — for paper
  9. face — to confront
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. capital — money
  12. clip — a video
  13. face — to point toward
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. shower — rain
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. shower — to wash
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. face — part of the head
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. row — a line
  23. stick — to attach or keep to
  24. row — to paddle

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