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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: wind · cold · coach · chip · net · land · kid · mine

  1. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. Have you met the new head ________________?
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. chip — for betting
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. chip — to eat
  4. mine — for digging
  5. coach — pulled by horses
  6. land — ground
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. net — in sport
  10. wind — moving air
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. net — for catching
  13. kid — to tease
  14. cold — an illness
  15. chip — in a computer
  16. land — to come down
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. wind — moving air
  19. kid — child
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. cold — not warm
  22. land — a country
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. net — after costs

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