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

Word bank: vault · last · coach · spring · land · cold · snap · kid

  1. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. Have you met the new head ________________?
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. cold — not warm
  3. snap — to click
  4. last — to go on
  5. kid — child
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. vault — a safe
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. spring — the season
  11. vault — an arched ceiling
  12. land — a country
  13. land — ground
  14. vault — in gymnastics
  15. spring — of water
  16. kid — to tease
  17. cold — an illness
  18. land — to come down
  19. last — finally
  20. last — final
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. spring — a coil
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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