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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: game · chest · clip · field · spring · cap · perch · mine

  1. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  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. game — a kind of play
  2. clip — a video
  3. chest — of your body
  4. game — a match
  5. chest — a box
  6. spring — the season
  7. clip — to cut
  8. cap — a hat
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. clip — for paper
  11. spring — of water
  12. spring — a coil
  13. field — farmland
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. cap — of ice
  16. game — wild animals
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. perch — the fish
  19. field — for sport
  20. field — a subject
  21. cap — a lid
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. chest — of your body
  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