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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: wax · bound · spring · ground · bat · cold · game · hand

  1. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. That was ________________ to happen.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. ground — crushed
  3. cold — an illness
  4. spring — of water
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bound — tied together
  7. hand — in cards
  8. bound — certain
  9. spring — the season
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. bound — obliged
  12. ground — a position
  13. game — a match
  14. bat — the animal
  15. ground — the earth
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. wax — to grow
  20. hand — help
  21. wax — for sculpting
  22. spring — a coil
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. bat — for baseball

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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