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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. I can't ________________ this cold.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. The ________________ went through the wall.
  12. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  18. You don't need to ________________ round.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. stand — to bear
  2. snap — to click
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. pop — music
  5. cold — not warm
  6. wind — moving air
  7. cold — an illness
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. pop — soda
  10. game — wild animals
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. stand — on your feet
  13. game — a match
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. spring — the season
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. stand — for spectators
  18. pop — to visit
  19. wind — moving air
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. spring — of water
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. nail — on a finger
  24. spring — a coil

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