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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 flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  22. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. march — the month
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. clip — for paper
  7. clip — a video
  8. scale — size or range
  9. spring — a coil
  10. track — to keep track
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. spring — of water
  13. hand — help
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. bat — the animal
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. scale — in music
  18. clip — to cut
  19. march — music
  20. march — the month
  21. track — a path
  22. track — a song
  23. hand — in cards
  24. wake — a trail

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