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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. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. Should I buy a wireless ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. bore — to tire
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. mouse — the animal
  5. spring — the season
  6. bore — gave birth
  7. clip — a video
  8. clip — to cut
  9. face — to point toward
  10. face — part of the head
  11. court — for sport
  12. cold — not warm
  13. face — to confront
  14. bore — to drill
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. court — of a king
  19. cold — an illness
  20. spring — a coil
  21. clip — for paper
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. court — of law
  24. mouse — for a computer

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