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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: cold · sharp · pitcher · root · game · bat · spring · calf

  1. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  6. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  7. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  12. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. calf — of the leg
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. root — of a plant
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. sharp — clever
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. root — of a word
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. spring — the season
  14. root — the cause
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cold — an illness
  18. game — wild animals
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. bat — the animal
  22. game — a match
  23. spring — a coil
  24. spring — of water

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