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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: straw · fall · court · chair · wind · hand · content · scale

  1. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — to sit on
  2. content — happy
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. wind — moving air
  6. chair — a leader
  7. court — of a king
  8. content — the amount
  9. fall — the season
  10. scale — in music
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. fall — to drop
  14. hand — in cards
  15. court — for sport
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. court — of law
  18. hand — help
  19. fall — to drop
  20. wind — moving air
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. scale — size or range
  24. content — videos and posts

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