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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 124 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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. wound — an injury
  4. spring — of water
  5. field — farmland
  6. clip — to cut
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. spring — the season
  9. root — of a word
  10. mouse — the animal
  11. swing — to play on
  12. swing — in golf
  13. wound — an injury
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. clip — for paper
  16. mouse — the animal
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. field — for sport
  19. root — the cause
  20. mouse — for a computer
  21. field — a subject
  22. root — of a plant
  23. swing — music
  24. clip — a video

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