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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. She's very handy with a ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. capital — a city
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. spring — of water
  7. mine — for digging
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. cap — of ice
  10. cap — a lid
  11. land — ground
  12. hand — help
  13. hand — in cards
  14. spring — a coil
  15. land — a country
  16. spring — the season
  17. saw — the tool
  18. shower — to wash
  19. shower — rain
  20. saw — the tool
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. capital — money
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. cap — a hat

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