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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. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. shower — rain
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. capital — a city
  5. prune — to trim
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. cap — a hat
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. prune — to trim
  10. cap — of ice
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. spring — a coil
  15. cold — not warm
  16. shower — to wash
  17. cap — a lid
  18. cold — an illness
  19. spell — a short time
  20. capital — money
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. spell — letters
  23. spring — the season
  24. spell — magic

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