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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: cold · object · rock · spell · wound · march · land · spring

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  21. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  22. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. march — the month
  3. march — the month
  4. wound — an injury
  5. land — to come down
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. object — a thing
  8. spring — the season
  9. spell — letters
  10. land — a country
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. wound — an injury
  13. land — ground
  14. march — music
  15. rock — a stone
  16. spell — magic
  17. object — an aim
  18. spring — a coil
  19. cold — not warm
  20. rock — to move gently
  21. object — to protest
  22. rock — music
  23. spell — a short time
  24. spring — of water

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