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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.

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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 · last · court · coach · cold · capital · board · tear

  1. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. Have you met the new head ________________?
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  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. board — a flat piece
  2. board — to get on
  3. court — for sport
  4. last — to go on
  5. tear — from crying
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. hand — help
  8. capital — money
  9. tear — to rip
  10. capital — a city
  11. cold — an illness
  12. tear — from crying
  13. court — of law
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. hand — in cards
  17. cold — not warm
  18. board — a committee
  19. last — finally
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. last — final
  23. court — of a king
  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