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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: mate · spring · snap · last · wound · kid · present · wind

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. kid — child
  3. mate — a partner
  4. last — to go on
  5. last — final
  6. last — finally
  7. present — a gift
  8. wound — an injury
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. wound — an injury
  11. mate — a friend
  12. spring — a coil
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. wind — moving air
  16. kid — to tease
  17. wind — moving air
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. spring — of water
  20. snap — to click
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. present — the time now
  23. mate — to breed
  24. present — there

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