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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: chest · court · land · jam · lash · deal · roll · clip

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  7. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  10. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  14. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. We're on a ________________ here.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  24. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. court — of a king
  3. chest — of your body
  4. clip — a video
  5. chest — a box
  6. deal — a big deal
  7. lash — a whip stroke
  8. land — ground
  9. jam — a tight spot
  10. lash — to lash out
  11. roll — a list
  12. chest — of your body
  13. deal — an agreement
  14. jam — to spread on bread
  15. roll — a cake
  16. roll — on a roll
  17. clip — for paper
  18. jam — in traffic
  19. clip — to cut
  20. land — a country
  21. land — to come down
  22. court — of law
  23. lash — an eyelash
  24. deal — to handle

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