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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 ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. ground — crushed
  3. cold — not warm
  4. spring — the season
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. capital — money
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. spring — a coil
  12. date — the fruit
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — an illness
  16. ground — a position
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. spring — of water
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. stem — to come from
  24. capital — a city

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