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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. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  21. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. calf — a young animal
  2. band — a ring
  3. spring — the season
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. shower — to wash
  7. snap — to click
  8. court — of law
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. spring — a coil
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. shower — rain
  15. cold — not warm
  16. cold — an illness
  17. band — a music group
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. court — of a king
  20. calf — of the leg
  21. stem — to come from
  22. spring — of water
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. court — for sport

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