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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  11. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  16. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. swing — music
  3. spring — of water
  4. tear — from crying
  5. swing — in golf
  6. tear — to rip
  7. present — a gift
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. spring — the season
  10. track — a song
  11. present — there
  12. stock — shares
  13. cold — an illness
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. track — to keep track
  16. track — a path
  17. spring — a coil
  18. swing — to play on
  19. stock — goods
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. present — the time now
  24. tear — from crying

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