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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 hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  8. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. What do you think of the new ________________?
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. net — for catching
  4. wind — moving air
  5. bat — the animal
  6. spring — the season
  7. cabinet — ministers
  8. kick — in football
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. cabinet — ministers
  11. wind — moving air
  12. capital — a city
  13. net — in sport
  14. land — a country
  15. cabinet — a cupboard
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. spring — a coil
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. capital — money
  21. land — ground
  22. net — after costs
  23. kick — a thrill
  24. land — to come down

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