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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. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  3. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. Have you met the new head ________________?
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. fine — a penalty
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. coach — pulled by horses
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. spring — a coil
  8. wound — an injury
  9. cold — not warm
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. wound — an injury
  12. fine — all right
  13. spring — the season
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — an illness
  18. spring — of water

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