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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.

Make a worksheet

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
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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: chest · trunk · row · season · court · game · kid · mine

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — of your body
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. court — for sport
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. kid — child
  12. game — wild animals
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. court — of law
  15. mine — for digging
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. row — a line
  18. season — of the year
  19. game — a match
  20. row — to paddle
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. season — in sport
  23. court — of a king
  24. chest — a box

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