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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  3. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  14. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. Have you met the new head ________________?
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. kick — with a leg
  3. coach — pulled by horses
  4. chest — a box
  5. land — ground
  6. craft — boats
  7. content — happy
  8. chest — of your body
  9. court — for sport
  10. land — a country
  11. file — a line of people
  12. content — the amount
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. craft — a handicraft
  15. file — a tool
  16. land — to come down
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. kick — a thrill
  19. chest — of your body
  20. file — a document
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. court — of a king
  23. kick — in football
  24. craft — a skill

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