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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: snap · mark · tear · wind · spring · wake · cold · trunk

  1. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. cold — not warm
  3. spring — of water
  4. wind — moving air
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. tear — from crying
  8. mark — a trace
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. spring — the season
  11. wind — moving air
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. tear — to rip
  15. mark — a grade
  16. cold — an illness
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. wake — a trail
  20. snap — to click
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. tear — from crying
  23. spring — a coil
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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