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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. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  17. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a lid
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. spring — the season
  4. band — a music group
  5. row — a line
  6. tear — to rip
  7. mine — for digging
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cap — a hat
  10. tear — from crying
  11. spring — a coil
  12. tear — from crying
  13. band — a ring
  14. spring — of water
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. club — for golf
  17. cap — of ice
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. club — for dancing
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. row — to paddle
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — not warm
  24. club — a group

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