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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. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  2. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  3. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. This knife is not ________________ enough.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — a whip stroke
  2. lash — an eyelash
  3. mark — a grade
  4. sharp — clever
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. cold — not warm
  7. prune — to trim
  8. bat — the animal
  9. spring — a coil
  10. game — wild animals
  11. mark — a trace
  12. prune — to trim
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. spring — the season
  17. game — a match
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. lash — to lash out
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. cold — an illness
  22. mark — to pay attention
  23. spring — of water
  24. sharp — with an edge

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