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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: cell · bulb · spring · fall · roll · pitch · cold · shower

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The light ________________ burned out.
  10. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. I've got to change the light ________________.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. fall — to drop
  3. spring — a coil
  4. spring — of water
  5. cell — a phone
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bulb — for light
  10. roll — a cake
  11. shower — to wash
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. fall — the season
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. shower — rain
  16. pitch — completely
  17. fall — to drop
  18. roll — a list
  19. cell — in biology
  20. spring — the season
  21. bulb — for light
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. bulb — of a plant

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