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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 120 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: craft · sharp · stem · spring · row · pop · cell · straw

  1. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. pop — soda
  4. pop — music
  5. row — a line
  6. spring — of water
  7. spring — a coil
  8. craft — a skill
  9. sharp — clever
  10. stem — to come from
  11. spring — the season
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. cell — in biology
  15. row — to paddle
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. cell — a phone
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. pop — to visit
  20. craft — a handicraft
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. row — a quarrel

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