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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  14. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  15. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  24. I don't want to ________________ the boat.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. spring — of water
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. spring — a coil
  5. game — a match
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. cold — not warm
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. season — in sport
  11. shower — to wash
  12. kid — child
  13. season — of the year
  14. rock — a stone
  15. rock — music
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. spring — the season
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. kid — to tease
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. shower — rain
  22. cold — an illness
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. rock — to move gently

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