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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: bank · court · swing · spell · squash · cold · snap · bat

  1. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  6. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. spell — letters
  3. swing — to play on
  4. snap — to click
  5. bank — of a river
  6. bank — for money
  7. spell — magic
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. bank — for money
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. squash — to crush
  12. cold — an illness
  13. court — of law
  14. court — of a king
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. court — for sport
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. spell — a short time
  20. swing — music
  21. bat — the animal
  22. swing — in golf
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. cold — not warm

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