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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. spring — the season
  4. spring — of water
  5. wake — to stop sleeping
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. wake — a trail
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. spring — a coil
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. sharp — clever
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — moving air
  16. game — wild animals
  17. cell — a phone
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. calf — a young animal
  20. game — a match
  21. cell — in biology
  22. calf — of the leg
  23. land — ground
  24. land — a country

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