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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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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: land · bat · squash · court · swing · fall · chest · straw

  1. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. David sat on the ________________.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — music
  2. land — a country
  3. swing — to play on
  4. chest — of your body
  5. land — ground
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. chest — of your body
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. fall — to drop
  10. land — to come down
  11. squash — the sport
  12. swing — in golf
  13. chest — a box
  14. court — for sport
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. bat — the animal
  19. squash — to crush
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. court — of law
  22. fall — to drop
  23. court — of a king
  24. fall — the season

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