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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 116 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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  20. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. spring — of water
  3. clip — for paper
  4. lean — to rest against
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. scale — in music
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bear — the animal
  9. mate — a friend
  10. bear — to put up with
  11. mate — a partner
  12. scale — size or range
  13. cold — an illness
  14. lean — to bend
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. cold — not warm
  17. lean — thin
  18. spring — the season
  19. trunk — of a car
  20. bear — the animal
  21. clip — a video
  22. mate — to breed
  23. clip — to cut
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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