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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 116 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. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. spring — a coil
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. last — final
  5. mine — for digging
  6. hand — help
  7. race — humankind
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. fine — all right
  10. last — to go on
  11. race — a contest
  12. last — finally
  13. race — the arms race
  14. hand — in cards
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. spring — the season
  17. spring — of water
  18. fine — a penalty

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