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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  6. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. fine — all right
  3. spring — a coil
  4. ground — the earth
  5. fine — a penalty
  6. fork — in a road
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. clip — for paper
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. kid — child
  11. clip — a video
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. ground — a position
  16. clip — to cut
  17. row — to paddle
  18. fine — high quality
  19. kid — to tease
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. row — a line
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. ground — crushed
  24. spring — the season

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