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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  6. It's one o'clock ________________.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  12. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. fine — all right
  4. perch — the fish
  5. fine — high quality
  6. sharp — exactly
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. spring — a coil
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. stem — a stem cell
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. file — a document
  15. stem — to come from
  16. cold — an illness
  17. fine — a penalty
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. file — a line of people
  20. file — a tool
  21. cold — not warm
  22. spring — the season
  23. sharp — clever
  24. cold — the Cold War

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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