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

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  3. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. leaves — lets stay
  3. leaves — to go away
  4. court — of a king
  5. leaves — of a tree
  6. cold — not warm
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. game — a match
  9. march — the month
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — an illness
  12. march — music
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. game — wild animals
  16. march — the month
  17. court — of law
  18. fork — in a road

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