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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  7. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. pop — soda
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. bat — the animal
  5. mine — for digging
  6. lash — an eyelash
  7. lean — to bend
  8. field — a subject
  9. pop — to visit
  10. spring — the season
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. lash — to lash out
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — an illness
  16. lean — thin
  17. field — farmland
  18. spring — of water
  19. spring — a coil
  20. cold — not warm
  21. lean — to rest against
  22. pop — music
  23. field — for sport
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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