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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 · cold · ground · clip · bank · land · kid · row

  1. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  20. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. land — a country
  3. row — to paddle
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. spring — the season
  6. kid — child
  7. clip — a video
  8. land — ground
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. kid — to tease
  11. clip — for paper
  12. bank — for money
  13. clip — to cut
  14. land — to come down
  15. cold — not warm
  16. spring — of water
  17. row — a line
  18. spring — a coil
  19. bank — of a river
  20. bank — for money
  21. ground — the earth
  22. cold — an illness
  23. ground — crushed
  24. ground — a position

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