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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: shower · stem · cold · clip · wound · chest · plane · mate

  1. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The ________________ took off on time.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. shower — rain
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. plane — in geometry
  5. wound — an injury
  6. clip — to cut
  7. stem — of a plant
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. stem — a stem cell
  10. mate — to breed
  11. chest — of your body
  12. shower — to wash
  13. clip — a video
  14. plane — an aircraft
  15. clip — for paper
  16. plane — a tool
  17. chest — of your body
  18. mate — a friend
  19. wound — an injury
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — not warm
  22. chest — a box
  23. stem — to come from
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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