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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. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. spring — of water
  3. spring — a coil
  4. plane — a tool
  5. band — a music group
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. kid — child
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. rule — a law
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. kid — to tease
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. cold — not warm
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. band — a ring
  23. cold — an illness
  24. spring — the season

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