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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 · bass · racket · date · arm · cold · sharp · fan

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  10. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  21. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Have you settled on a ________________?
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. sharp — clever
  3. racket — a loud noise
  4. spring — of water
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. spring — the season
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. cold — an illness
  9. arm — a part of something
  10. racket — for tennis
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. bass — the fish
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. spring — a coil
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. cold — not warm
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. date — the fruit
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. sharp — exactly

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