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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: club · hand · wind · saw · bat · spring · land · cap

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. cap — a hat
  3. wind — moving air
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. cap — a lid
  6. club — for dancing
  7. wind — moving air
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. hand — in cards
  10. club — a group
  11. cap — of ice
  12. land — a country
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. land — ground
  15. club — for golf
  16. bat — the animal
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. spring — of water
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. land — to come down
  21. hand — help
  22. spring — the season
  23. saw — the tool
  24. saw — the tool

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