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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 big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  21. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — of a plant
  2. stem — to come from
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. cold — an illness
  6. file — a line of people
  7. pit — a hole
  8. land — a country
  9. land — to come down
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. bark — to shout
  12. land — ground
  13. chest — of your body
  14. file — a tool
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — not warm
  17. pit — in a race
  18. chest — a box
  19. file — a document
  20. stem — a stem cell
  21. pit — a fruit stone
  22. bat — the animal
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. chest — of your body

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