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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: race · clip · present · spring · fork · tube · bore · cold

  1. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  22. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. spring — the season
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. spring — a coil
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. present — the time now
  7. present — a gift
  8. clip — a video
  9. clip — to cut
  10. tube — a container
  11. race — a contest
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. cold — an illness
  14. race — the arms race
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — not warm
  17. fork — in a road
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. clip — for paper
  20. race — humankind
  21. bore — to tire
  22. bore — to drill
  23. spring — of water
  24. tube — the underground

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