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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: shower · season · spring · cold · stock · saw · staff · march

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  16. Did you ________________ the meat?
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. saw — the tool
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. saw — the tool
  5. march — the month
  6. stock — shares
  7. spring — of water
  8. spring — a coil
  9. march — music
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. cold — an illness
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. staff — employees
  14. stock — goods
  15. staff — employees
  16. season — to add flavour
  17. spring — the season
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. season — in sport
  20. march — the month
  21. season — of the year
  22. cold — not warm
  23. staff — a stick
  24. shower — rain

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