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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 120 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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  19. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  20. Did you ________________ the meat?
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. rash — hasty
  4. season — in sport
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. cell — in biology
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. spring — the season
  9. band — a ring
  10. cold — not warm
  11. rash — a series
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. band — a music group
  14. cell — a phone
  15. cold — an illness
  16. spring — a coil
  17. spring — of water
  18. bore — to tire
  19. bore — to drill
  20. season — to add flavour
  21. season — of the year
  22. bore — gave birth
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. fan — a supporter

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