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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 120 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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: ball · bat · hand · perch · chest · coach · cold · mate

  1. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  5. The King held a masked ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. perch — the fish
  2. mate — to breed
  3. mate — a partner
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. ball — a dance
  6. chest — a box
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. chest — of your body
  9. ball — a great time
  10. hand — help
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — not warm
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. chest — of your body
  17. coach — pulled by horses
  18. mate — a friend
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. bat — the animal
  22. hand — in cards
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. coach — a trainer

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