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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 · spring · toast · mate · land · spell · trunk · cold

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  10. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. I've got the luggage in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. land — to come down
  3. spring — a coil
  4. wind — moving air
  5. mate — a partner
  6. wind — moving air
  7. land — ground
  8. spell — a short time
  9. toast — bread
  10. trunk — of an elephant
  11. spring — of water
  12. spell — letters
  13. mate — a friend
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — an illness
  16. mate — to breed
  17. cold — not warm
  18. toast — the most admired
  19. spell — magic
  20. toast — a drink to someone
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. land — a country
  24. trunk — of a car

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