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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: march · spring · land · shower · prune · cell · bear · season

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  16. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  17. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. march — the month
  3. prune — the fruit
  4. march — music
  5. shower — rain
  6. spring — a coil
  7. cell — in biology
  8. land — a country
  9. spring — of water
  10. shower — to wash
  11. spring — the season
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. bear — the animal
  14. prune — to trim
  15. season — of the year
  16. bear — to put up with
  17. bear — the animal
  18. march — the month
  19. land — to come down
  20. cell — a phone
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. season — in sport
  23. land — ground
  24. prune — to trim

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