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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  6. That was ________________ to happen.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  19. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. spring — a coil
  3. ball — a great time
  4. clip — a video
  5. club — for golf
  6. bound — certain
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. clip — for paper
  9. ball — a dance
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. toast — a drink to someone
  12. spring — of water
  13. bound — obliged
  14. cold — not warm
  15. cold — an illness
  16. clip — to cut
  17. club — a group
  18. toast — bread
  19. toast — the most admired
  20. mine — for digging
  21. spring — the season
  22. bound — tied together
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. club — for dancing

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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