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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: net · mine · land · band · swing · bore · spring · cap

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  15. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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. band — a rubber band
  4. land — a country
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. net — for catching
  7. land — ground
  8. land — to come down
  9. net — after costs
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. swing — music
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. mine — for digging
  14. bore — to drill
  15. bore — to tire
  16. spring — the season
  17. swing — to play on
  18. swing — in golf
  19. band — a ring
  20. cap — a hat
  21. cap — a lid
  22. band — a music group
  23. net — in sport
  24. cap — of ice

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