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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 120 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: race · spring · rock · fan · march · fork · wind · cold

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  10. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. Can you turn the ________________ on?

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. spring — a coil
  3. wind — moving air
  4. race — humankind
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. march — music
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. rock — to move gently
  10. rock — a stone
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. cold — not warm
  13. march — the month
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. spring — of water
  16. spring — the season
  17. race — a contest
  18. fork — in a road
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. cold — an illness
  21. race — the arms race
  22. wind — moving air
  23. march — the month
  24. fan — to cool the air

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