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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 116 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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. pass — to spend time
  4. cold — not warm
  5. pass — to succeed
  6. row — a line
  7. bark — to shout
  8. row — to paddle
  9. spring — the season
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. ball — a great time
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. spring — a coil
  14. cold — an illness
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. pass — a permit
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. spring — of water
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. ball — a dance

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