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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The ________________ went through the wall.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. bark — to shout
  3. spring — of water
  4. cold — an illness
  5. nail — for a hammer
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. capital — a city
  9. degree — an amount
  10. capital — money
  11. degree — temperature
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. spring — the season
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. cold — not warm
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. degree — from a university
  20. snap — to click
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. nail — on a finger
  24. date — the fruit

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