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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 120 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 I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. The King held a masked ________________.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  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. snap — to click
  2. spring — a coil
  3. ball — a great time
  4. spring — of water
  5. ball — a dance
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. last — finally
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. tear — from crying
  10. clip — a video
  11. mine — for digging
  12. spring — the season
  13. cap — a lid
  14. tear — from crying
  15. clip — for paper
  16. cap — of ice
  17. clip — to cut
  18. last — final
  19. cap — a hat
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. tear — to rip
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. last — to go on
  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