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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. spring — a coil
  3. land — ground
  4. mine — for digging
  5. net — after costs
  6. land — to come down
  7. ground — the earth
  8. spring — of water
  9. fork — to eat with
  10. march — the month
  11. ground — crushed
  12. march — the month
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. ground — a position
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. land — a country
  17. net — for catching
  18. spring — the season
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. fork — in a road
  21. net — in sport
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. march — music
  24. fork — a garden tool

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