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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. spring — of water
  4. capital — money
  5. capital — a city
  6. cap — a hat
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. cap — of ice
  9. wound — an injury
  10. mine — for digging
  11. game — a match
  12. hand — in cards
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. spring — the season
  15. hand — help
  16. wound — an injury
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. fork — in a road
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. spring — a coil
  24. cap — a lid

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