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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: spring · wound · cold · root · mine · bear · capital · trunk

  1. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  3. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  11. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. bear — to put up with
  3. root — the cause
  4. mine — for digging
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. capital — a city
  9. wound — an injury
  10. trunk — of an elephant
  11. bear — the animal
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — of water
  14. capital — money
  15. wound — an injury
  16. bear — the animal
  17. root — of a word
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. cold — not warm
  21. spring — a coil
  22. cold — an illness
  23. root — of a plant
  24. trunk — of a tree

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