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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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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: kid · net · cold · court · sharp · swing · arm · fine

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  7. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. My father caught me by the ________________.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. net — after costs
  3. kid — to tease
  4. swing — music
  5. court — for sport
  6. fine — all right
  7. fine — a penalty
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — not warm
  11. fine — high quality
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. arm — a part of something
  14. swing — in golf
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. court — of a king
  17. arm — part of the body
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. net — in sport
  20. kid — child
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. sharp — clever
  23. net — for catching
  24. swing — to play on

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