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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: spring · chest · cold · pound · ground · mouse · rash · wave

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  3. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. pound — a weight
  3. mouse — for a computer
  4. spring — a coil
  5. wave — with your hand
  6. spring — the season
  7. ground — a position
  8. chest — of your body
  9. rash — on the skin
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. wave — of the sea
  12. spring — of water
  13. cold — not warm
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. rash — hasty
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. rash — a series
  19. ground — the earth
  20. wave — a sudden rise
  21. ground — crushed
  22. mouse — the animal
  23. chest — a box
  24. mouse — the animal

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