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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: clip · mark · chair · mine · stem · pass · cold · tear

  1. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  16. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  17. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. You can't go backstage without a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. mine — for digging
  3. chair — a leader
  4. stem — to come from
  5. mark — a trace
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — to cut
  8. tear — from crying
  9. cold — an illness
  10. clip — for paper
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. mark — a grade
  13. tear — to rip
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. pass — to spend time
  16. pass — to succeed
  17. mark — to pay attention
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. tear — from crying
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — not warm
  24. pass — a permit

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