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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  6. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  7. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. spring — the season
  3. chest — of your body
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. dip — a sauce
  6. pitch — completely
  7. dip — to sink
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. spring — a coil
  10. file — a line of people
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. chest — of your body
  13. spring — of water
  14. land — a country
  15. chest — a box
  16. land — to come down
  17. face — to point toward
  18. face — to confront
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. mine — for digging
  21. face — part of the head
  22. file — a document
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. file — a tool

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