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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  14. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  15. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. mate — a partner
  3. drill — a practice
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. mate — to breed
  6. spring — the season
  7. drill — the tool
  8. mate — a friend
  9. pitch — completely
  10. chest — of your body
  11. present — the time now
  12. chest — a box
  13. present — there
  14. present — a gift
  15. pitch — a sales talk
  16. clip — a video
  17. spring — of water
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. chest — of your body
  20. clip — to cut
  21. drill — army training
  22. game — a match
  23. game — wild animals
  24. clip — for paper

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