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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  10. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. mine — for digging
  3. spring — of water
  4. net — for catching
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. file — a line of people
  8. net — in sport
  9. lie — to recline
  10. lie — an untruth
  11. spring — the season
  12. branch — a division
  13. net — after costs
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. file — a document
  16. branch — of a bank
  17. wind — moving air
  18. sharp — clever
  19. file — a tool
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. lie — an untruth
  24. wind — moving air

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