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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. We're almost out of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. spring — a coil
  3. wake — a trail
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. file — a document
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. file — a line of people
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. pop — to visit
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — not warm
  14. game — a match
  15. file — a tool
  16. spring — of water
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. sharp — clever
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. pop — music
  21. mine — for digging
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. game — wild animals
  24. pop — soda

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