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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 water is too ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. cold — not warm
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. face — to point toward
  5. net — after costs
  6. nail — on a finger
  7. capital — money
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. spring — of water
  10. face — to confront
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. cold — an illness
  13. net — for catching
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. face — part of the head
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. capital — a city
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. chair — a leader
  22. spring — the season
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. net — in sport

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