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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. Let us try to swim against the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. stem — to come from
  3. ground — the earth
  4. ground — crushed
  5. cold — not warm
  6. game — wild animals
  7. current — electric
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. tube — the underground
  10. file — a document
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. perch — the fish
  14. file — a tool
  15. ground — a position
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. game — a match
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. tube — a container
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. file — a line of people
  22. current — happening now
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. current — of water

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