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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.

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: mouse · prune · court · ground · chip · cold · row · spring

  1. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  2. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. mouse — for a computer
  3. ground — crushed
  4. cold — not warm
  5. court — for sport
  6. chip — to eat
  7. spring — a coil
  8. row — a line
  9. chip — in a computer
  10. cold — an illness
  11. chip — for betting
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — of water
  14. prune — to trim
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. ground — a position
  17. ground — the earth
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. prune — to trim
  21. court — of law
  22. row — to paddle
  23. court — of a king
  24. mouse — the animal

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