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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: coach · snap · court · bay · cold · kick · kid · shower

  1. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. My mare is ________________ in color.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. kid — to tease
  3. shower — rain
  4. court — of law
  5. kid — child
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. bay — to keep at bay
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. bay — a horse colour
  10. cold — not warm
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. shower — to wash
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. cold — an illness
  15. kick — in football
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. bay — a part of the sea
  18. snap — to click
  19. court — for sport
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. court — of a king
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. cold — the Cold War

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