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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 116 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 still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  4. The ________________ took off on time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. band — a ring
  3. plane — a tool
  4. plane — an aircraft
  5. cold — an illness
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. pit — a hole
  8. root — of a plant
  9. branch — a division
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. plane — in geometry
  14. band — a music group
  15. game — wild animals
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. game — a match
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. root — of a word
  20. court — of a king
  21. court — of law
  22. cold — not warm
  23. pit — in a race
  24. root — the cause

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