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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: squash · band · court · mate · scale · hand · chest · land

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. Have you found your soul ________________?
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. land — a country
  3. chest — a box
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. band — a music group
  6. court — of law
  7. scale — in music
  8. chest — of your body
  9. court — for sport
  10. land — to come down
  11. squash — to crush
  12. mate — a partner
  13. land — ground
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. hand — help
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. chest — of your body
  18. mate — a friend
  19. squash — the sport
  20. court — of a king
  21. mate — to breed
  22. scale — size or range
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. hand — in cards

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