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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. wound — an injury
  5. vault — an arched ceiling
  6. cold — not warm
  7. stem — of a plant
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. ground — the earth
  10. wound — an injury
  11. spring — the season
  12. season — in sport
  13. cold — an illness
  14. spring — of water
  15. vault — a safe
  16. ground — a position
  17. chest — of your body
  18. vault — in gymnastics
  19. ground — crushed
  20. season — of the year
  21. chest — a box
  22. spring — a coil
  23. stem — to come from
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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