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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  10. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. spring — the season
  3. clip — for paper
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. cell — a phone
  6. capital — money
  7. wound — an injury
  8. land — to come down
  9. deal — an agreement
  10. deal — to handle
  11. wound — an injury
  12. season — in sport
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. land — ground
  16. spring — a coil
  17. spring — of water
  18. cell — in biology
  19. season — of the year
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. capital — a city
  22. clip — a video
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. clip — to cut

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