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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: wind · root · march · row · hand · season · cold · jam

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  3. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  22. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. season — of the year
  3. jam — in traffic
  4. row — a line
  5. wind — moving air
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. hand — help
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — an illness
  11. row — to paddle
  12. season — in sport
  13. hand — in cards
  14. jam — a tight spot
  15. march — the month
  16. root — of a plant
  17. march — the month
  18. march — music
  19. root — the cause
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. root — of a word
  22. jam — to spread on bread
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. wind — moving air

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