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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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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: chest · net · prune · hand · mine · court · pop · cold

  1. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. court — of law
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. chest — of your body
  6. net — after costs
  7. cold — an illness
  8. net — for catching
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. hand — in cards
  12. court — for sport
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. pop — music
  15. hand — help
  16. cold — not warm
  17. prune — to trim
  18. chest — a box
  19. net — in sport
  20. pop — to visit
  21. chest — of your body
  22. mine — for digging
  23. pop — soda
  24. court — of a king

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