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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: coach · bore · land · wind · season · perch · chest · kid

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  23. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. land — to come down
  4. wind — moving air
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. season — in sport
  7. season — of the year
  8. kid — child
  9. chest — a box
  10. perch — the fish
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. chest — of your body
  15. bore — to tire
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. land — a country
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. wind — moving air
  21. land — ground
  22. bore — gave birth
  23. bore — to drill
  24. chest — of your body

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