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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. It's one o'clock ________________.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. snap — to click
  3. cold — an illness
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. spring — the season
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. sharp — exactly
  11. spell — letters
  12. spell — a short time
  13. mark — a grade
  14. cold — not warm
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. spell — magic
  17. mark — a trace
  18. wax — to grow
  19. wax — for sculpting
  20. sharp — clever
  21. mark — to pay attention
  22. spring — a coil
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. straw — dry grass

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