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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. She's very handy with a ________________.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. He works in a ________________ mill.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. cold — not warm
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. mine — for digging
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. saw — the tool
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. row — to paddle
  9. saw — the tool
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. ball — a great time
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. prune — to trim
  15. prune — to trim
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. row — a line
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. cold — an illness
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. ball — a dance

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