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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. We're on a ________________ here.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  6. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — on a roll
  2. land — a country
  3. spring — the season
  4. kid — to tease
  5. roll — a cake
  6. roll — a list
  7. band — a music group
  8. mouse — the animal
  9. land — to come down
  10. band — a ring
  11. spring — of water
  12. clip — to cut
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. clip — for paper
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. spring — a coil
  19. mouse — for a computer
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. clip — a video
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. kid — child
  24. land — ground

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