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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: cue · rule · clip · land · fan · spring · shower · field

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  20. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. rule — government
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. fan — to cool the air
  5. spring — the season
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. cue — a signal
  8. shower — rain
  9. clip — to cut
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. field — a subject
  12. field — farmland
  13. field — for sport
  14. spring — of water
  15. rule — a law
  16. shower — to wash
  17. land — to come down
  18. land — ground
  19. cue — for pool
  20. cue — a hint
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. land — a country
  23. spring — a coil
  24. clip — a video

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