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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: court · trunk · cold · drill · spring · season · calf · row

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. season — in sport
  3. drill — the tool
  4. spring — the season
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. row — a line
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. spring — a coil
  11. court — for sport
  12. calf — of the leg
  13. drill — a practice
  14. drill — army training
  15. court — of law
  16. season — of the year
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. court — of a king
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. calf — a young animal
  22. row — to paddle
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. calf — a young animal

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