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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  12. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  13. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. Have you found your soul ________________?
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  22. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. mate — to breed
  3. land — ground
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. spring — a coil
  6. staff — employees
  7. spring — of water
  8. capital — a city
  9. spring — the season
  10. land — a country
  11. lash — an eyelash
  12. lash — to lash out
  13. staff — employees
  14. fall — to drop
  15. fall — the season
  16. mate — a partner
  17. mate — a friend
  18. fall — to drop
  19. file — a tool
  20. file — a document
  21. lash — a whip stroke
  22. staff — a stick
  23. capital — money
  24. file — a line of people

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