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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: fall · spring · game · race · fan · current · cold · content

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. fall — the season
  5. game — wild animals
  6. content — happy
  7. spring — a coil
  8. current — happening now
  9. cold — not warm
  10. fall — to drop
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. current — electric
  13. spring — the season
  14. cold — an illness
  15. race — humankind
  16. race — a contest
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. fall — to drop
  20. current — of water
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. game — a match
  23. race — the arms race
  24. spring — of water

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