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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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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: date · bank · spring · cold · chest · pitcher · club · cell

  1. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Have you settled on a ________________?
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  24. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. cold — an illness
  4. club — for golf
  5. date — the fruit
  6. club — a group
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. cold — not warm
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. spring — of water
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. chest — of your body
  15. cell — in biology
  16. chest — a box
  17. club — for dancing
  18. cell — a phone
  19. spring — the season
  20. chest — of your body
  21. bank — of a river
  22. spring — a coil
  23. bank — for money
  24. bank — for money

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