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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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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: field · swing · chest · bear · mate · lash · court · cold

  1. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. Have you found your soul ________________?
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  16. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  24. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. mate — to breed
  3. swing — music
  4. mate — a partner
  5. field — farmland
  6. chest — of your body
  7. swing — in golf
  8. court — of a king
  9. cold — an illness
  10. field — a subject
  11. chest — a box
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. swing — to play on
  14. court — of law
  15. bear — to put up with
  16. lash — an eyelash
  17. cold — not warm
  18. bear — the animal
  19. field — for sport
  20. lash — a whip stroke
  21. court — for sport
  22. chest — of your body
  23. lash — to lash out
  24. bear — the animal

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