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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  12. I can't ________________ this cold.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. chest — of your body
  3. cold — not warm
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. court — for sport
  6. last — to go on
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. swing — in golf
  9. stand — for spectators
  10. last — final
  11. bass — low music
  12. stand — to bear
  13. court — of law
  14. chest — a box
  15. stand — on your feet
  16. court — of a king
  17. mine — for digging
  18. chest — of your body
  19. swing — to play on
  20. bass — the fish
  21. cold — an illness
  22. last — finally
  23. swing — music
  24. cold — the Cold War

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