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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: season · cold · clip · spell · land · rest · craft · hand

  1. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  5. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. Did you ________________ the meat?
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. craft — a handicraft
  2. land — a country
  3. spell — magic
  4. season — of the year
  5. rest — what's left
  6. land — ground
  7. hand — help
  8. season — to add flavour
  9. clip — for paper
  10. craft — boats
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. rest — a break
  15. rest — what's left
  16. season — in sport
  17. land — to come down
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. spell — a short time
  20. hand — in cards
  21. clip — to cut
  22. craft — a skill
  23. spell — letters
  24. clip — a video

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