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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: tear · march · cell · ground · clip · wax · root · stem

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  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. march — the month
  2. tear — from crying
  3. ground — crushed
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. root — of a plant
  6. ground — a position
  7. clip — a video
  8. cell — in biology
  9. root — of a word
  10. wax — to grow
  11. clip — to cut
  12. march — the month
  13. cell — a phone
  14. tear — from crying
  15. clip — for paper
  16. tear — to rip
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. stem — to come from
  19. march — music
  20. ground — the earth
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. root — the cause
  23. wax — for sculpting
  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