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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: lash · mine · board · court · cold · chair · content · field

  1. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  23. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cold — not warm
  4. field — farmland
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. board — a committee
  8. content — happy
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. lash — a whip stroke
  12. field — for sport
  13. board — to get on
  14. court — of a king
  15. lash — to lash out
  16. mine — for digging
  17. field — a subject
  18. court — for sport
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. content — the amount
  21. chair — a leader
  22. lash — an eyelash
  23. board — a flat piece
  24. court — of law

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