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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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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: squash · spring · cell · racket · fan · ground · cold · calf

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  5. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  6. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  13. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  14. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  15. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. He had ________________ pain while walking.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. squash — to crush
  3. cell — a phone
  4. racket — a loud noise
  5. fan — to cool the air
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. spring — of water
  9. spring — a coil
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. calf — a young animal
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. spring — the season
  17. cold — an illness
  18. squash — the sport
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cell — in biology
  22. ground — the earth
  23. ground — a position
  24. calf — of the leg

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