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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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. chip — for betting
  3. chip — to eat
  4. land — to come down
  5. net — in sport
  6. hand — help
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. stem — of a plant
  9. net — for catching
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. net — after costs
  12. court — of law
  13. hand — in cards
  14. stem — to come from
  15. field — for sport
  16. land — a country
  17. land — ground
  18. field — a subject
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. court — of a king
  21. clip — for paper
  22. clip — a video
  23. field — farmland
  24. clip — to cut

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