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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. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. That was ________________ to happen.
  13. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  14. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. That must've been a ________________.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. current — electric
  2. track — a song
  3. spring — of water
  4. bound — tied together
  5. current — happening now
  6. track — to keep track
  7. shower — to wash
  8. cold — an illness
  9. shower — rain
  10. bound — obliged
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bound — certain
  13. rush — to hurry
  14. rush — hurry
  15. capital — a city
  16. cold — not warm
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. spring — the season
  19. current — of water
  20. capital — money
  21. rush — a thrill
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. track — a path
  24. spring — a coil

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