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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  3. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  4. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  9. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. This piece is in a major ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  19. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  20. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. key — for a lock
  3. chip — for betting
  4. chip — to eat
  5. game — a match
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. spring — of water
  8. stick — a piece of wood
  9. key — the most important part
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. key — in music
  12. spring — the season
  13. chip — in a computer
  14. cold — not warm
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. branch — of a tree
  20. branch — a division
  21. spring — a coil
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. game — wild animals
  24. cold — an illness

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