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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. When will it ________________ you to start?
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. mine — for digging
  3. cold — not warm
  4. spell — a short time
  5. spell — magic
  6. suit — in cards
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. suit — to fit
  9. last — finally
  10. last — final
  11. spring — a coil
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. spell — letters
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. bat — the animal
  17. prune — to trim
  18. suit — clothes
  19. spring — the season
  20. prune — to trim
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. last — to go on
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. mine — belonging to me

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