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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  7. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. When was this ________________ built?
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. band — a music group
  3. band — a ring
  4. clip — a video
  5. field — a subject
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. rest — a break
  8. clip — to cut
  9. temple — a place of worship
  10. snap — to click
  11. clip — for paper
  12. spring — a coil
  13. ground — a position
  14. ground — crushed
  15. rest — what's left
  16. spring — the season
  17. temple — side of the head
  18. ground — the earth
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. field — for sport
  21. rest — what's left
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. field — farmland
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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