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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: ground · bat · coach · file · court · season · land · clip

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Did you ________________ the meat?
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. ground — the earth
  3. court — for sport
  4. court — of a king
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. ground — a position
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. season — of the year
  9. coach — pulled by horses
  10. clip — for paper
  11. bat — the animal
  12. file — a tool
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. season — in sport
  15. clip — to cut
  16. season — to add flavour
  17. land — to come down
  18. file — a line of people
  19. land — ground
  20. clip — a video
  21. file — a document
  22. land — a country
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. court — of law

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