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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  15. We're on a ________________ here.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. That must've been a ________________.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. squash — the sport
  3. rush — hurry
  4. roll — a list
  5. stem — of a plant
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — an illness
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. stem — to come from
  11. chest — a box
  12. court — of law
  13. squash — to crush
  14. rush — to hurry
  15. roll — on a roll
  16. chest — of your body
  17. stem — a stem cell
  18. court — of a king
  19. file — a document
  20. roll — a cake
  21. chest — of your body
  22. rush — a thrill
  23. file — a line of people
  24. file — a tool

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