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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 120 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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  13. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  14. Did you ________________ the button?
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. The King held a masked ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. stem — to come from
  3. chip — to eat
  4. ball — a great time
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. row — to paddle
  7. press — newspapers
  8. cold — not warm
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. cold — an illness
  12. press — a publisher
  13. chip — for betting
  14. press — to push
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. spring — the season
  17. dip — a sauce
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. dip — to sink
  20. ball — a dance
  21. spring — a coil
  22. row — a line
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. chip — in a computer

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