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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. We're almost out of ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  4. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  16. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — soda
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. sharp — with an edge
  4. track — a song
  5. spring — of water
  6. game — wild animals
  7. cell — a phone
  8. mine — for digging
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. game — a match
  11. spring — a coil
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. cell — in biology
  15. track — a path
  16. sharp — clever
  17. scale — in music
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. pop — to visit
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. pop — music
  22. scale — size or range
  23. track — to keep track
  24. spring — the season

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