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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: spring · season · chest · bat · scale · game · kick · content

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. Did you ________________ the meat?
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. bat — the animal
  3. spring — of water
  4. season — to add flavour
  5. spring — the season
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. season — of the year
  8. scale — in music
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. chest — of your body
  12. scale — size or range
  13. game — a match
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. chest — a box
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. content — happy
  19. kick — in football
  20. game — wild animals
  21. spring — a coil
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. content — the amount
  24. season — in sport

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