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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 120 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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: coach · cold · court · fall · tear · swing

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. court — for sport
  3. court — of a king
  4. court — of law
  5. fall — the season
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — not warm
  8. swing — to play on
  9. swing — music
  10. fall — to drop
  11. cold — an illness
  12. fall — to drop
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. tear — to rip
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. tear — from crying
  18. swing — in golf

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