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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: clip · spring · bound · tube · chest · ground · pitcher · temple

  1. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. That was ________________ to happen.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  6. When was this ________________ built?
  7. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. bound — certain
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. ground — the earth
  5. temple — a place of worship
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. bound — tied together
  8. chest — of your body
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. tube — a container
  11. spring — of water
  12. chest — a box
  13. spring — the season
  14. chest — of your body
  15. clip — to cut
  16. ground — a position
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. ground — crushed
  19. tube — the underground
  20. temple — side of the head
  21. clip — for paper
  22. bound — obliged
  23. spring — a coil
  24. clip — a video

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