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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. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. The tickets are free of ________________.
  20. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. charge — electricity
  2. spring — a coil
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. court — of a king
  5. charge — in control
  6. spring — of water
  7. hand — in cards
  8. land — ground
  9. cold — an illness
  10. mate — a partner
  11. land — to come down
  12. mate — a friend
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. sharp — clever
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. cold — not warm
  18. spring — the season
  19. charge — a price
  20. mate — to breed
  21. hand — help
  22. land — a country
  23. court — for sport
  24. court — of law

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