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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. bass — low music
  3. bass — the fish
  4. cold — an illness
  5. wake — to stop sleeping
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. stem — of a plant
  8. march — the month
  9. bass — the instrument
  10. rash — a series
  11. snap — to click
  12. rash — hasty
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. stem — to come from
  16. cold — not warm
  17. wake — a trail
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. march — music
  20. rash — on the skin
  21. march — the month
  22. field — a subject
  23. field — farmland
  24. field — for sport

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