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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 116 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. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  9. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — a stone
  2. spring — of water
  3. calf — of the leg
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. calf — a young animal
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. rock — music
  9. rock — to move gently
  10. stem — to come from
  11. file — a tool
  12. spring — a coil
  13. spring — the season
  14. march — music
  15. file — a line of people
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. march — the month
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. shower — rain
  20. shower — to wash
  21. file — a document
  22. bat — the animal
  23. march — the month
  24. bat — in an idiom

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