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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: swing · land · net · court · march · bat · fork · roll

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. land — a country
  3. fork — to eat with
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. roll — a cake
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. march — music
  8. march — the month
  9. bat — the animal
  10. swing — in golf
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. land — ground
  13. court — of a king
  14. roll — a list
  15. march — the month
  16. fork — in a road
  17. net — in sport
  18. swing — to play on
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. swing — music
  21. net — after costs
  22. court — of law
  23. net — for catching
  24. land — to come down

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