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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. track — a song
  3. root — of a word
  4. stem — to come from
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. cell — a phone
  7. root — the cause
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. wound — an injury
  11. track — to keep track
  12. row — a line
  13. cell — in biology
  14. wound — an injury
  15. bowl — to roll
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. track — a path
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. row — to paddle
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. snap — to click
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. root — of a plant

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