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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. My mare is ________________ in color.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  13. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. stem — to come from
  3. prune — to trim
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. game — a match
  7. bay — a horse colour
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. bay — to keep at bay
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. bay — a part of the sea
  13. scale — size or range
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. ball — a great time
  16. prune — to trim
  17. bat — the animal
  18. spring — the season
  19. spring — a coil
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. game — wild animals
  22. scale — in music
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. ball — a dance

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