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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 flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  14. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  21. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. kid — to tease
  3. saw — the tool
  4. bound — certain
  5. degree — from a university
  6. scale — size or range
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. scale — in music
  9. kid — child
  10. leaves — lets stay
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. clip — to cut
  13. bound — obliged
  14. saw — past of 'see'
  15. degree — an amount
  16. degree — temperature
  17. bound — tied together
  18. spring — a coil
  19. spring — of water
  20. leaves — to go away
  21. leaves — of a tree
  22. clip — a video
  23. saw — the tool
  24. clip — for paper

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