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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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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: spring · wound · wind · wake · chair · race · prune · rash

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. wound — an injury
  3. wind — moving air
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. prune — to trim
  7. rash — on the skin
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. race — the arms race
  10. wind — moving air
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. prune — to trim
  13. wound — an injury
  14. rash — hasty
  15. chair — a leader
  16. rash — a series
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. race — a contest
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. race — humankind
  21. spring — the season
  22. wake — a trail
  23. spring — of water
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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