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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. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  20. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. spring — of water
  3. tear — from crying
  4. field — a subject
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. spring — the season
  8. file — a document
  9. tear — from crying
  10. hand — help
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. deal — to handle
  13. file — a line of people
  14. tear — to rip
  15. field — for sport
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. field — farmland
  18. hand — in cards
  19. deal — a big deal
  20. stem — to come from
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. file — a tool
  24. spring — a coil

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