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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: coach · court · land · patient · tear · cap · kid · bass

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. land — a country
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. court — of law
  5. kid — to tease
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. cap — of ice
  10. tear — from crying
  11. tear — from crying
  12. cap — a lid
  13. court — of a king
  14. cap — a hat
  15. tear — to rip
  16. court — for sport
  17. bass — low music
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. land — to come down
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. kid — child
  24. bass — the fish

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