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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. A black ________________ roamed the forest.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. scale — size or range
  3. club — for dancing
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. cold — not warm
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. club — for golf
  9. cold — an illness
  10. rash — a series
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. scale — in music
  14. bear — the animal
  15. club — a group
  16. rash — hasty
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. spring — the season
  19. wake — a trail
  20. spring — of water
  21. bear — to put up with
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. snap — to click
  24. bear — the animal

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