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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. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  3. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  17. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. stem — to come from
  5. prune — to trim
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. tear — from crying
  8. tear — from crying
  9. patient — calm and waiting
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — an illness
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. prune — to trim
  16. ball — a round shape
  17. calf — of the leg
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. tear — to rip
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. ball — a dance
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. prune — the fruit

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