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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. The ________________ market has crashed.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. cell — a phone
  3. season — of the year
  4. wind — moving air
  5. spell — letters
  6. cell — in biology
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. dip — to dunk
  9. cold — an illness
  10. band — a music group
  11. stock — shares
  12. wind — moving air
  13. spell — a short time
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. dip — to sink
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. band — a ring
  20. cold — not warm
  21. spell — magic
  22. season — in sport
  23. stock — goods
  24. cell — in a prison

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