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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: swing · mine · stem · race · cold · pop · season · kid

  1. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. Did you ________________ the meat?
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — of a plant
  2. cold — not warm
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. swing — in golf
  5. season — of the year
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. race — humankind
  9. season — in sport
  10. mine — for digging
  11. pop — music
  12. pop — to visit
  13. stem — to come from
  14. kid — to tease
  15. cold — an illness
  16. swing — to play on
  17. race — a contest
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. race — the arms race
  20. kid — child
  21. pop — soda
  22. swing — music
  23. season — to add flavour
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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