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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 hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. I can't ________________ this cold.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. spring — the season
  3. rule — to rule out
  4. cold — an illness
  5. land — ground
  6. rule — a law
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. cold — not warm
  10. chest — of your body
  11. land — to come down
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. ground — crushed
  16. ground — a position
  17. stand — to bear
  18. spring — a coil
  19. chest — of your body
  20. rule — government
  21. land — a country
  22. ground — the earth
  23. chest — a box
  24. stand — for spectators

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