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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: net · chest · bound · chair · court · bat · wound · spring

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. That was ________________ to happen.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. We are ________________ to obey laws.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. wound — an injury
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. bound — tied together
  7. court — of law
  8. bound — certain
  9. net — in sport
  10. court — for sport
  11. court — of a king
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. chair — a leader
  14. wound — an injury
  15. chest — a box
  16. spring — the season
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. spring — of water
  19. spring — a coil
  20. net — for catching
  21. chest — of your body
  22. chest — of your body
  23. bat — the animal
  24. bound — obliged

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