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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: chest · cold · shower · wound · spring · ruler · trunk · ground

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  12. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. spring — a coil
  4. ruler — for measuring
  5. spring — of water
  6. ground — a position
  7. cold — an illness
  8. ruler — a monarch
  9. ground — the earth
  10. ground — crushed
  11. trunk — of an elephant
  12. ruler — for measuring
  13. wound — an injury
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. shower — rain
  16. wound — an injury
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. spring — the season
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. trunk — of a car
  22. shower — to wash
  23. chest — of your body
  24. chest — a box

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