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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: craft · field · court · spell · rash · band · cell · kid

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. spell — letters
  3. craft — a skill
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. cell — a phone
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. court — for sport
  9. field — farmland
  10. spell — magic
  11. field — for sport
  12. rash — hasty
  13. kid — child
  14. craft — boats
  15. field — a subject
  16. spell — a short time
  17. court — of law
  18. band — a ring
  19. craft — a handicraft
  20. court — of a king
  21. band — a music group
  22. cell — in biology
  23. rash — a series
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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