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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: mine · rule · cold · season · trunk · pop · spring · clip

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Did you ________________ the meat?
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. season — in sport
  3. clip — for paper
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. clip — a video
  6. rule — a law
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. season — of the year
  9. pop — soda
  10. cold — an illness
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. mine — for digging
  13. cold — not warm
  14. season — to add flavour
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. rule — government
  17. spring — a coil
  18. spring — of water
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. pop — to visit
  22. clip — to cut
  23. pop — music
  24. rule — to rule out

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