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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. saw — the tool
  3. spring — of water
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. scale — in music
  6. scale — size or range
  7. capital — money
  8. wind — moving air
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. band — a ring
  12. spring — a coil
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. squash — the vegetable
  15. band — a music group
  16. squash — the sport
  17. spring — the season
  18. saw — the tool
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. capital — a city
  21. saw — past of 'see'
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. wind — moving air
  24. squash — to crush

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