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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'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  6. When was this ________________ built?
  7. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. She's very handy with a ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  21. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  22. Have you met the new head ________________?
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. land — ground
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. cold — not warm
  5. temple — side of the head
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. saw — past of 'see'
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. spring — a coil
  10. land — a country
  11. saw — the tool
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. temple — a place of worship
  14. hand — help
  15. land — to come down
  16. spring — the season
  17. saw — the tool
  18. cold — an illness
  19. bark — to shout
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. coach — pulled by horses
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. hand — in cards
  24. cold — the Cold War

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