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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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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: field · court · hand · chest · pop · sharp · march · squash

  1. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. You don't need to ________________ round.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. march — the month
  3. chest — of your body
  4. squash — the sport
  5. field — a subject
  6. pop — soda
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. court — for sport
  9. squash — to crush
  10. chest — a box
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. pop — music
  13. field — farmland
  14. court — of law
  15. court — of a king
  16. hand — in cards
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. sharp — clever
  19. hand — help
  20. march — the month
  21. chest — of your body
  22. pop — to visit
  23. field — for sport
  24. march — music

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