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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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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: sharp · row · snap · court · fall · cold · club · chest

  1. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  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. sharp — exactly
  2. snap — to click
  3. chest — of your body
  4. club — for golf
  5. court — of a king
  6. club — for dancing
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. fall — the season
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. court — of law
  11. cold — an illness
  12. court — for sport
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. cold — not warm
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. sharp — clever
  18. chest — a box
  19. fall — to drop
  20. row — to paddle
  21. row — a line
  22. fall — to drop
  23. club — a group
  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