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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: court · chest · tear · land · scale · rush · track · perch

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. That must've been a ________________.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. track — to keep track
  3. court — of law
  4. scale — in music
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. land — to come down
  8. rush — to hurry
  9. chest — of your body
  10. rush — hurry
  11. land — ground
  12. perch — the fish
  13. tear — from crying
  14. scale — size or range
  15. chest — a box
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. court — of a king
  18. track — a path
  19. land — a country
  20. track — a song
  21. tear — from crying
  22. rush — a thrill
  23. tear — to rip
  24. chest — of your body

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