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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. What do you think of the new ________________?
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. spring — the season
  3. content — happy
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. file — a line of people
  6. cap — of ice
  7. spring — a coil
  8. content — the amount
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. cap — a hat
  12. cabinet — ministers
  13. net — for catching
  14. file — a tool
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. net — in sport
  17. land — a country
  18. cabinet — a cupboard
  19. land — to come down
  20. file — a document
  21. cabinet — ministers
  22. spring — of water
  23. net — after costs
  24. cap — a lid

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