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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  20. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. Don't do anything ________________.
  23. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. stem — to come from
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. prune — to trim
  5. tear — from crying
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. fine — a penalty
  9. chest — of your body
  10. chest — of your body
  11. capital — money
  12. prune — to trim
  13. field — a subject
  14. tear — from crying
  15. capital — a city
  16. rash — a series
  17. chest — a box
  18. tear — to rip
  19. fine — all right
  20. fine — high quality
  21. field — farmland
  22. rash — hasty
  23. rash — on the skin
  24. prune — the fruit

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