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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: pitcher · snap · cold · pound · wound · spring · land · hand

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. spring — the season
  4. spring — a coil
  5. wound — an injury
  6. spring — of water
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. hand — in cards
  11. cold — not warm
  12. wound — an injury
  13. land — to come down
  14. land — ground
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. pound — for dogs
  20. snap — to click
  21. land — a country
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. pound — a weight

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