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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: wind · season · fall · wound · roll · game · mine · cold

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. We're on a ________________ here.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. Spring is a pleasant ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. cold — an illness
  3. mine — for digging
  4. wound — an injury
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. game — wild animals
  7. wound — an injury
  8. fall — to drop
  9. roll — a list
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. season — in sport
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. wind — moving air
  15. roll — on a roll
  16. fall — to drop
  17. game — a match
  18. cold — not warm
  19. wind — moving air
  20. roll — a cake
  21. fall — the season
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. season — of the year

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