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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. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a flat piece
  2. stem — to come from
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. saw — the tool
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. cold — an illness
  7. band — a ring
  8. pass — to succeed
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. band — a music group
  11. row — a line
  12. wind — moving air
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. board — a committee
  16. row — to paddle
  17. board — to get on
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. saw — the tool
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. pass — a permit
  22. cold — not warm
  23. pass — to spend time
  24. wind — moving air

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