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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
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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: bass · tear · saw · cold · chair · roll · last · spring

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. tear — from crying
  3. spring — of water
  4. roll — a cake
  5. saw — the tool
  6. bass — low music
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. last — finally
  9. cold — not warm
  10. roll — a list
  11. tear — to rip
  12. bass — the fish
  13. spring — the season
  14. spring — a coil
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. chair — a leader
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. cold — an illness
  19. tear — from crying
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. last — to go on
  23. saw — the tool
  24. chair — a professorship

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