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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. I've got to change the light ________________.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  10. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  11. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The light ________________ burned out.
  17. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — for light
  2. spell — a short time
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. spring — of water
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. spell — magic
  7. spell — letters
  8. spring — the season
  9. rest — what's left
  10. present — the time now
  11. rest — a break
  12. file — a line of people
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. spring — a coil
  15. file — a document
  16. bulb — for light
  17. bulb — of a plant
  18. wound — an injury
  19. file — a tool
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. wound — an injury
  22. present — a gift
  23. rest — what's left
  24. present — there

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