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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. deal — a big deal
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. spring — a coil
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. capital — a city
  12. spring — of water
  13. deal — to handle
  14. scale — size or range
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. rash — a series
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. scale — in music
  19. capital — money
  20. rash — hasty
  21. spring — the season
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. band — a music group
  24. band — a ring

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