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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 flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. You don't need to ________________ round.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. pop — music
  3. file — a line of people
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. spring — of water
  6. spring — a coil
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. file — a tool
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. face — to confront
  11. court — for sport
  12. file — a document
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. face — part of the head
  15. face — to point toward
  16. court — of law
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. court — of a king
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. pop — soda
  24. pop — to visit

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