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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 · present · temple · fork · clip · cold · march · firm

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  7. When was this ________________ built?
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. temple — side of the head
  3. cold — an illness
  4. present — there
  5. clip — for paper
  6. firm — decided
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. march — music
  9. clip — a video
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. firm — a company
  12. cold — not warm
  13. spring — a coil
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. fork — to eat with
  16. present — a gift
  17. spring — of water
  18. firm — steady
  19. march — the month
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. fork — in a road
  22. march — the month
  23. present — the time now
  24. spring — the season

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