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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: capital · bear · snap · land · spell · bat · row · spring

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. bear — the animal
  5. land — to come down
  6. bear — the animal
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. row — a line
  9. bat — the animal
  10. row — to paddle
  11. spring — the season
  12. land — a country
  13. capital — money
  14. spell — magic
  15. snap — to click
  16. capital — a city
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. spell — letters
  19. spring — a coil
  20. spell — a short time
  21. bear — to put up with
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. spring — of water

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