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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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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 · cell · row · wind · lash · cold · race · rule

  1. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  2. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — an eyelash
  2. rule — to rule out
  3. row — a line
  4. wind — moving air
  5. spring — of water
  6. lash — to lash out
  7. cold — an illness
  8. race — humankind
  9. wind — moving air
  10. lash — a whip stroke
  11. spring — the season
  12. cell — a phone
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. rule — a law
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. race — the arms race
  18. race — a contest
  19. cell — in biology
  20. spring — a coil
  21. row — to paddle
  22. rule — government
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. cell — in a prison

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