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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  10. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. present — the time now
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. present — a gift
  5. file — a document
  6. foot — the bottom
  7. file — a line of people
  8. cold — an illness
  9. foot — part of the body
  10. foot — a measure
  11. present — there
  12. wake — a trail
  13. spring — a coil
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. file — a tool
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. spring — the season
  20. land — a country
  21. land — to come down
  22. cold — not warm
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. land — ground

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