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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. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  11. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. safe — out of danger
  2. spell — magic
  3. stem — to come from
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. spell — a short time
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. cold — not warm
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. roll — a cake
  10. safe — out of danger
  11. safe — a strongbox
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. roll — a list
  14. court — of a king
  15. file — a tool
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bat — the animal
  18. file — a document
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. spell — letters
  21. court — of law
  22. file — a line of people
  23. court — for sport
  24. cold — an illness

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