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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: bat · kid · can · hand · tear · board · content · court

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  13. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. Recycle the empty soda ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. board — to get on
  3. court — of law
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. court — for sport
  6. can — a tin
  7. kid — child
  8. tear — from crying
  9. hand — help
  10. bat — the animal
  11. hand — in cards
  12. board — a flat piece
  13. can — to be able to
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. tear — from crying
  16. court — of a king
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. kid — to tease
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. content — the amount
  21. tear — to rip
  22. board — a committee
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. can — a tin

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