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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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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: spring · capital · bank · cold · net · clip · bulb · kid

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The light ________________ burned out.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I've got to change the light ________________.
  13. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  19. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. spring — the season
  4. spring — of water
  5. clip — to cut
  6. net — for catching
  7. kid — child
  8. bulb — for light
  9. kid — to tease
  10. net — in sport
  11. clip — a video
  12. bulb — for light
  13. bank — for money
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. bank — for money
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — for paper
  18. bulb — of a plant
  19. net — after costs
  20. capital — a city
  21. capital — money
  22. cold — not warm
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. bank — of a river

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