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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: spring · race · perch · pit · shower · mine · march · wound

  1. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. mine — for digging
  3. march — music
  4. race — the arms race
  5. spring — of water
  6. race — humankind
  7. perch — the fish
  8. spring — the season
  9. shower — to wash
  10. wound — an injury
  11. spring — a coil
  12. pit — a hole
  13. march — the month
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. race — a contest
  16. wound — an injury
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. pit — in a race
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. march — the month
  23. shower — rain
  24. pit — a fruit stone

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