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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 120 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: sharp · shower · mine · degree · spring · chest · swing · hand

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. spring — a coil
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. chest — of your body
  5. degree — an amount
  6. spring — of water
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. hand — help
  10. sharp — clever
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. mine — for digging
  13. swing — in golf
  14. swing — to play on
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. shower — to wash
  17. chest — of your body
  18. chest — a box
  19. degree — temperature
  20. degree — from a university
  21. hand — in cards
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. swing — music
  24. shower — rain

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