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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  3. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  9. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. mark — a trace
  4. degree — an amount
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. shower — rain
  8. patient — calm and waiting
  9. trunk — of an elephant
  10. shower — to wash
  11. drill — the tool
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. clip — for paper
  15. mark — a grade
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. degree — from a university
  18. clip — a video
  19. degree — temperature
  20. mark — to pay attention
  21. drill — a practice
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. drill — army training
  24. clip — to cut

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