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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.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of a king
  2. shower — to wash
  3. court — for sport
  4. foot — part of the body
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. cold — not warm
  7. foot — the bottom
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. shower — rain
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. prune — to trim
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. court — of law
  15. prune — to trim
  16. foot — a measure
  17. cold — an illness
  18. shower — a meteor shower

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