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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 116 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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · cell · fork · hand · pitch · spring · race · bear

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  13. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  14. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. cell — a phone
  3. bear — to put up with
  4. spring — of water
  5. hand — help
  6. cold — an illness
  7. bear — the animal
  8. race — humankind
  9. cold — not warm
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. bear — the animal
  13. fork — a garden tool
  14. pitch — a sports field
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. hand — in cards
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. cell — in biology
  19. fork — in a road
  20. spring — a coil
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. pitch — completely
  23. spring — the season
  24. race — the arms race

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