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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: fan · spring · chest · wind · cell · clip · bound · pass

  1. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. That was ________________ to happen.
  14. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  15. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. chest — of your body
  4. bound — tied together
  5. spring — of water
  6. chest — a box
  7. pass — to succeed
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. clip — for paper
  10. clip — to cut
  11. cell — a phone
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. bound — certain
  14. pass — to spend time
  15. bound — obliged
  16. spring — a coil
  17. wind — moving air
  18. pass — a permit
  19. chest — of your body
  20. wind — moving air
  21. fan — to cool the air
  22. spring — the season
  23. cell — in biology
  24. clip — a video

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