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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: spring · mine · bass · net · race · chest · wake · content

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. chest — of your body
  3. content — happy
  4. content — the amount
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. net — after costs
  7. mine — for digging
  8. net — for catching
  9. wake — to stop sleeping
  10. race — the arms race
  11. chest — a box
  12. net — in sport
  13. chest — of your body
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. race — a contest
  16. race — humankind
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. wake — a trail
  19. spring — of water
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. bass — the fish
  22. bass — low music
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. spring — a coil

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