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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. I'll be taking the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  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. tube — the underground
  2. cold — not warm
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. degree — from a university
  5. stem — to come from
  6. march — music
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. bore — to tire
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. tube — a container
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. bore — to drill
  14. march — the month
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. march — the month
  17. degree — temperature
  18. degree — an amount
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. bore — gave birth
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. chair — a leader
  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