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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: land · game · saw · spring · chest · swing · club · degree

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. She's very handy with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. degree — an amount
  3. chest — of your body
  4. land — ground
  5. swing — in golf
  6. spring — a coil
  7. club — a group
  8. club — for golf
  9. chest — a box
  10. game — wild animals
  11. degree — temperature
  12. land — to come down
  13. spring — of water
  14. swing — to play on
  15. chest — of your body
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. saw — the tool
  18. club — for dancing
  19. spring — the season
  20. swing — music
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. degree — from a university
  23. land — a country
  24. saw — the tool

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