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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. Have you found your soul ________________?
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  22. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. mate — to breed
  5. cold — not warm
  6. saw — the tool
  7. lean — thin
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. saw — the tool
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. capital — money
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. mate — a partner
  18. lean — to bend
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. mate — a friend
  22. bowl — a football final
  23. capital — a city
  24. stem — of a plant

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