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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: cold · squash · mine · wind · snap · trunk · last · leaves

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. last — to go on
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. squash — the sport
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. last — finally
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. mine — for digging
  12. leaves — to go away
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. leaves — of a tree
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. snap — to click
  17. leaves — lets stay
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. wind — moving air
  21. last — final
  22. wind — moving air
  23. cold — an illness
  24. squash — to crush

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