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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  9. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  10. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  16. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. cold — an illness
  3. pit — a fruit stone
  4. cap — a hat
  5. calf — of the leg
  6. perch — the fish
  7. pit — in a race
  8. pit — a hole
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. fine — all right
  11. clip — a video
  12. cold — not warm
  13. clip — for paper
  14. spring — the season
  15. calf — a young animal
  16. fine — a penalty
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. spring — a coil
  19. cap — of ice
  20. cap — a lid
  21. clip — to cut
  22. fine — high quality
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. perch — for a bird

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