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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: chest · ground · band · scale · stem · squash · mate · bat

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Have you found your soul ________________?
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. I'd like to play a game of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. squash — to crush
  3. ground — crushed
  4. chest — of your body
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. scale — size or range
  7. mate — a friend
  8. bat — the animal
  9. chest — a box
  10. chest — of your body
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. ground — a position
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. band — a music group
  15. ground — the earth
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. band — a ring
  19. mate — a partner
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. scale — in music
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. stem — to come from
  24. squash — the sport

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