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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 · mine · chip · press · land · wound · tear · snap

  1. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  10. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. Did you ________________ the button?
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. land — a country
  3. snap — to click
  4. chip — in a computer
  5. tear — from crying
  6. tear — from crying
  7. court — for sport
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. chip — to eat
  10. press — newspapers
  11. court — of law
  12. press — to push
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. tear — to rip
  16. wound — an injury
  17. land — ground
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. press — a publisher
  20. land — to come down
  21. chip — for betting
  22. wound — an injury
  23. court — of a king
  24. mine — belonging to me

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