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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: wake · deal · court · bulb · chair · land · chest · cold

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. I've got to change the light ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. chest — of your body
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. cold — an illness
  5. bulb — for light
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. court — of law
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. bulb — for light
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — not warm
  12. chest — of your body
  13. deal — to handle
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. land — a country
  16. chest — a box
  17. deal — an agreement
  18. wake — a trail
  19. land — to come down
  20. chair — a leader
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. court — of a king
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  24. court — for sport

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