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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. spring — of water
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. patient — calm and waiting
  7. file — a tool
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. chest — of your body
  10. spring — the season
  11. capital — money
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. spring — a coil
  14. pitch — completely
  15. land — ground
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. chest — a box
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. land — to come down
  20. file — a document
  21. chest — of your body
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. capital — a city
  24. file — a line of people

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