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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 120 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 hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. last — final
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. file — a line of people
  6. lie — to recline
  7. spring — the season
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. cell — a phone
  10. file — a document
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. kid — to tease
  13. lie — an untruth
  14. last — finally
  15. spring — a coil
  16. bat — the animal
  17. file — a tool
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. cell — in biology
  20. kid — child
  21. last — to go on
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. pitcher — a jug

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