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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. My father caught me by the ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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. stem — to come from
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. bat — the animal
  6. cold — not warm
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. band — a music group
  11. stem — a stem cell
  12. spring — a coil
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. band — a ring
  17. arm — a part of something
  18. capital — money
  19. spring — the season
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. cold — an illness
  22. arm — part of the body
  23. wake — a trail
  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