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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. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. You don't need to ________________ round.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. spring — the season
  3. race — a contest
  4. clip — to cut
  5. wound — an injury
  6. clip — a video
  7. pop — soda
  8. wound — an injury
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. pop — to visit
  11. race — the arms race
  12. clip — for paper
  13. march — the month
  14. march — the month
  15. field — farmland
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. race — humankind
  18. spring — a coil
  19. field — a subject
  20. pop — music
  21. field — for sport
  22. march — music
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. straw — a straw man

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