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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. I've got to change the light ________________.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. The light ________________ burned out.
  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. cold — the Cold War
  2. spring — a coil
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. net — for catching
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. net — after costs
  7. land — to come down
  8. spring — of water
  9. wake — a trail
  10. spring — the season
  11. bulb — of a plant
  12. cold — not warm
  13. wake — before a funeral
  14. pound — a weight
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. cold — an illness
  17. march — music
  18. march — the month
  19. march — the month
  20. bulb — for light
  21. land — ground
  22. land — a country
  23. bulb — for light
  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