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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: wind · roll · chest · march · tube · cabinet · coach · court

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. Have you met the new head ________________?
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. What do you think of the new ________________?
  9. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. court — of a king
  3. roll — a cake
  4. chest — of your body
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. tube — the underground
  8. cabinet — ministers
  9. cabinet — a cupboard
  10. tube — a container
  11. chest — a box
  12. wind — moving air
  13. march — the month
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. march — the month
  16. cabinet — ministers
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. chest — of your body
  19. coach — pulled by horses
  20. roll — a list
  21. wind — moving air
  22. court — of law
  23. march — music
  24. tube — in a tire

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