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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cell · stem · fall · clip · kid · row

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. cell — in biology
  3. fall — to drop
  4. stem — of a plant
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. fall — to drop
  7. stem — to come from
  8. row — to paddle
  9. clip — to cut
  10. row — a line
  11. clip — a video
  12. cell — a phone
  13. clip — for paper
  14. kid — child
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. fall — the season
  17. stem — a stem cell
  18. cell — in a prison

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