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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: race · cold · game · wind · fan · prune · spell · stem

  1. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. cold — an illness
  4. prune — to trim
  5. prune — to trim
  6. wind — moving air
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. spell — magic
  10. game — wild animals
  11. cold — not warm
  12. race — the arms race
  13. wind — moving air
  14. race — a contest
  15. stem — to come from
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. race — humankind
  20. spell — letters
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. game — a match

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