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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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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: kid · court · content · land · wave · pound · snap · hand

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. content — happy
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. snap — to click
  5. wave — of the sea
  6. land — ground
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. hand — in cards
  9. land — a country
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. content — the amount
  13. court — of a king
  14. kid — to tease
  15. court — of law
  16. wave — with your hand
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. land — to come down
  20. kid — child
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. court — for sport
  23. wave — a sudden rise
  24. pound — a weight

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