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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.

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 · bat · spell · object · lash · land · wave · cold

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  12. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  15. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. spring — of water
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. object — to protest
  5. cold — not warm
  6. lash — an eyelash
  7. land — ground
  8. bat — the animal
  9. object — an aim
  10. spell — letters
  11. wave — a sudden rise
  12. object — a thing
  13. land — to come down
  14. lash — to lash out
  15. wave — of the sea
  16. spring — the season
  17. cold — an illness
  18. lash — a whip stroke
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. spring — a coil
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. spell — a short time
  23. land — a country
  24. spell — magic

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