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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: band · bat · chest · pop · spring · perch · cold · mate

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. You don't need to ________________ round.
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. Have you found your soul ________________?
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. pop — to visit
  3. mate — to breed
  4. chest — of your body
  5. chest — of your body
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. spring — the season
  8. band — a music group
  9. chest — a box
  10. mate — a friend
  11. bat — the animal
  12. spring — of water
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. pop — soda
  17. perch — the fish
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. band — a ring
  21. mate — a partner
  22. spring — a coil
  23. pop — music
  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