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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: spring · capital · nail · hand · prune · present · staff · shower

  1. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. The ________________ went through the wall.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  14. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  15. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  23. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. present — a gift
  3. shower — rain
  4. staff — a stick
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. prune — to trim
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. hand — help
  11. shower — to wash
  12. spring — a coil
  13. staff — employees
  14. present — the time now
  15. nail — on a finger
  16. prune — to trim
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. spring — of water
  19. capital — money
  20. spring — the season
  21. capital — a city
  22. staff — employees
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. hand — in cards

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