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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. kid — to tease
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. squash — the sport
  7. squash — to crush
  8. march — the month
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. drill — the tool
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. mate — a partner
  16. march — the month
  17. drill — army training
  18. march — music
  19. drill — a practice
  20. content — the amount
  21. content — happy
  22. mate — a friend
  23. kid — child
  24. mate — to breed

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