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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. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  8. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  15. Did you ________________ the button?
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. hand — in cards
  3. spring — the season
  4. roll — a cake
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. spring — of water
  7. stem — of a plant
  8. press — a publisher
  9. hand — help
  10. staff — a stick
  11. spring — a coil
  12. press — newspapers
  13. cap — a lid
  14. roll — a list
  15. press — to push
  16. stem — to come from
  17. cap — a hat
  18. cap — of ice
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. wound — an injury
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. wound — an injury
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. staff — employees

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