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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 116 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. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. Have you found your soul ________________?
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — a stem cell
  2. rule — a law
  3. content — happy
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. prune — to trim
  8. spring — a coil
  9. mate — to breed
  10. mate — a friend
  11. rule — government
  12. cold — not warm
  13. spring — the season
  14. root — of a plant
  15. content — the amount
  16. root — of a word
  17. prune — to trim
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. cold — an illness
  20. root — the cause
  21. spring — of water
  22. stem — to come from
  23. mate — a partner
  24. rule — to rule out

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