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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: court · stem · hand · lie · board · cold · kid · spring

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  5. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  6. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  7. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. lie — an untruth
  3. cold — not warm
  4. board — a flat piece
  5. lie — an untruth
  6. board — to get on
  7. board — a committee
  8. spring — of water
  9. cold — an illness
  10. stem — to come from
  11. hand — in cards
  12. court — of a king
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. kid — to tease
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. hand — help
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. court — for sport
  20. spring — a coil
  21. court — of law
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. spring — the season
  24. lie — to recline

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