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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. I've got to change the light ________________.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Did you ________________ the meat?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The light ________________ burned out.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Spring is a pleasant ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — for light
  2. bark — to shout
  3. chest — of your body
  4. season — to add flavour
  5. cold — not warm
  6. season — in sport
  7. swing — in golf
  8. spell — magic
  9. spring — of water
  10. bulb — for light
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. swing — to play on
  13. chest — of your body
  14. spell — a short time
  15. chest — a box
  16. spring — the season
  17. spring — a coil
  18. spell — letters
  19. swing — music
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. cold — an illness
  24. season — of the year

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