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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: hand · court · jam · chip · cold · plane · land · wind

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The ________________ took off on time.
  12. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. land — ground
  3. jam — to spread on bread
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. hand — in cards
  6. land — to come down
  7. jam — in traffic
  8. chip — to eat
  9. chip — in a computer
  10. wind — moving air
  11. plane — an aircraft
  12. plane — in geometry
  13. wind — moving air
  14. court — of law
  15. jam — a tight spot
  16. land — a country
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. court — of a king
  19. plane — a tool
  20. hand — help
  21. chip — for betting
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — the Cold War

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