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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 flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. That must've been a ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  16. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  21. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. wind — moving air
  4. board — to get on
  5. capital — a city
  6. cold — not warm
  7. spring — of water
  8. rush — a thrill
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. wind — moving air
  11. saw — the tool
  12. spring — a coil
  13. board — a committee
  14. cold — an illness
  15. board — a flat piece
  16. rush — hurry
  17. saw — the tool
  18. stock — shares
  19. capital — money
  20. rush — to hurry
  21. saw — past of 'see'
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. stock — goods
  24. wind — to turn a key

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