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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. What do you think of the new ________________?
  10. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  18. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  24. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. kid — to tease
  3. last — finally
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. current — happening now
  6. spring — the season
  7. kid — child
  8. last — final
  9. cabinet — ministers
  10. bowl — to roll
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bowl — a football final
  14. cold — not warm
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. last — to go on
  17. current — of water
  18. bowl — a dish
  19. spring — a coil
  20. cabinet — ministers
  21. row — a line
  22. row — to paddle
  23. cabinet — a cupboard
  24. current — electric

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