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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. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. Have you met the new head ________________?
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. I've got the luggage in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. spring — a coil
  4. capital — a city
  5. spring — of water
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. row — a line
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. spring — the season
  12. capital — money
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. bat — the animal
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. sharp — clever
  21. row — to paddle
  22. coach — pulled by horses
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. trunk — of a car

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