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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 120 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 water is too ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  5. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  21. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  22. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. clip — for paper
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. cue — a signal
  5. mark — to pay attention
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cue — a hint
  8. row — to paddle
  9. root — the cause
  10. spring — the season
  11. clip — to cut
  12. clip — a video
  13. row — a line
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. spring — a coil
  16. mark — a grade
  17. root — of a word
  18. stem — to come from
  19. spring — of water
  20. cue — for pool
  21. root — of a plant
  22. mark — a trace
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. cold — an illness

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