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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 124 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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  22. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  23. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  24. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. stem — of a plant
  3. wax — to grow
  4. file — a document
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. rock — to move gently
  8. stem — to come from
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. capital — a city
  12. spring — the season
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. spring — a coil
  15. file — a line of people
  16. file — a tool
  17. pitch — a sales talk
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. capital — money
  20. spring — of water
  21. rock — a stone
  22. racket — a loud noise
  23. racket — for tennis
  24. pitch — completely

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