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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 116 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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  12. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  13. Where did you ________________ them?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He refilled his coffee ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. field — a subject
  3. fine — high quality
  4. clip — for paper
  5. spring — a coil
  6. spell — a short time
  7. file — a tool
  8. field — farmland
  9. spell — letters
  10. clip — a video
  11. mug — a face
  12. fine — all right
  13. mug — to rob
  14. clip — to cut
  15. file — a document
  16. land — ground
  17. land — to come down
  18. fine — a penalty
  19. spring — the season
  20. spell — magic
  21. file — a line of people
  22. land — a country
  23. field — for sport
  24. mug — a cup

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