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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  13. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  14. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. land — a country
  3. ground — crushed
  4. ground — the earth
  5. spring — a coil
  6. cold — not warm
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. wind — moving air
  9. spring — of water
  10. wind — moving air
  11. land — to come down
  12. bear — the animal
  13. bear — the animal
  14. bear — to put up with
  15. spell — magic
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. spring — the season
  19. spell — a short time
  20. land — ground
  21. racket — a loud noise
  22. cold — an illness
  23. ground — a position
  24. racket — for tennis

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