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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: bat · chest · drill · squash · mine · net

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. mine — for digging
  3. squash — the sport
  4. bat — the animal
  5. net — after costs
  6. net — for catching
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. chest — a box
  12. squash — to crush
  13. net — in sport
  14. chest — of your body
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. drill — army training
  17. drill — the tool
  18. drill — a practice

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