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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: rock · hand · ground · land · spring · mine · clip · fall

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. clip — to cut
  3. land — ground
  4. fall — to drop
  5. rock — music
  6. spring — the season
  7. spring — of water
  8. fall — to drop
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. ground — a position
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. clip — a video
  14. ground — crushed
  15. rock — a stone
  16. fall — the season
  17. hand — in cards
  18. rock — to move gently
  19. hand — help
  20. spring — a coil
  21. clip — for paper
  22. land — to come down
  23. ground — the earth
  24. mine — for digging

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