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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.

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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: spring · cold · last · rush · trunk · march · saw · season

  1. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  22. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  23. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. cold — an illness
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. spring — a coil
  5. march — the month
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. last — final
  8. last — to go on
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. spring — the season
  11. season — in sport
  12. march — the month
  13. saw — the tool
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. cold — not warm
  16. trunk — of a tree
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. march — music
  19. spring — of water
  20. last — finally
  21. rush — hurry
  22. season — of the year
  23. trunk — of an elephant
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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