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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 116 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 flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. You don't need to ________________ round.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. We're almost out of ________________.
  13. She's very handy with a ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. snap — to click
  3. wake — a trail
  4. clip — to cut
  5. pop — to visit
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. ground — the earth
  10. clip — for paper
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. pop — soda
  13. saw — the tool
  14. clip — a video
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. spring — a coil
  17. ground — a position
  18. saw — the tool
  19. spring — of water
  20. pop — music
  21. bat — the animal
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. ground — crushed

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