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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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Word bank
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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: chair · patient · spring · stem · game · cold · race · ball

  1. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — a stem cell
  2. cold — not warm
  3. game — wild animals
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. stem — to come from
  6. chair — a leader
  7. spring — of water
  8. game — a match
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. ball — a great time
  11. ball — a dance
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. spring — a coil
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. race — the arms race
  17. race — humankind
  18. spring — the season
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. race — a contest
  22. cold — an illness
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. patient — a sick person

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