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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. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  22. Where did you ________________ them?
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. wound — an injury
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. land — ground
  5. cold — an illness
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. cold — not warm
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. land — a country
  10. mug — a face
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. scale — size or range
  13. spring — a coil
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. land — to come down
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. spring — of water
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. scale — in music
  20. bat — the animal
  21. mug — a cup
  22. mug — to rob
  23. wound — an injury
  24. pitcher — in baseball

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