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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 116 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: bat · charge · spring · wind · cold · court · chip · land

  1. The tickets are free of ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. charge — a price
  2. bat — the animal
  3. land — to come down
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. chip — to eat
  6. court — of law
  7. spring — a coil
  8. court — for sport
  9. court — of a king
  10. spring — of water
  11. chip — in a computer
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. charge — electricity
  14. land — ground
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. chip — for betting
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. spring — the season
  19. land — a country
  20. cold — an illness
  21. wind — moving air
  22. wind — moving air
  23. charge — in control
  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