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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · march · clip · spring · rest · temple · land · court

  1. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. When was this ________________ built?
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. court — for sport
  3. land — to come down
  4. rest — a break
  5. clip — for paper
  6. court — of law
  7. land — a country
  8. chest — of your body
  9. temple — a place of worship
  10. spring — a coil
  11. court — of a king
  12. clip — to cut
  13. march — the month
  14. temple — a place of worship
  15. march — music
  16. spring — of water
  17. clip — a video
  18. chest — a box
  19. march — the month
  20. rest — what's left
  21. spring — the season
  22. land — ground
  23. chest — of your body
  24. temple — side of the head

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