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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — a trail
  2. capital — a city
  3. mine — for digging
  4. spring — the season
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. spring — a coil
  9. kid — child
  10. stem — to come from
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. kid — to tease
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. spring — of water
  16. capital — money
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. mine — an explosive

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