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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 hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  22. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  23. Did you ________________ the button?
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. spring — a coil
  3. clip — to cut
  4. press — newspapers
  5. net — after costs
  6. cold — an illness
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. scale — in music
  9. press — a publisher
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. clip — a video
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. fork — a garden tool
  14. scale — size or range
  15. net — in sport
  16. spring — the season
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — not warm
  19. clip — for paper
  20. net — for catching
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. press — to push
  24. fork — in a road

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