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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. snap — to click
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. spring — of water
  5. race — a contest
  6. stem — to come from
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. clip — for paper
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. swing — to play on
  12. race — humankind
  13. spring — the season
  14. swing — music
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. rash — a series
  17. swing — in golf
  18. clip — to cut
  19. clip — a video
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. race — the arms race
  24. rash — hasty

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