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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. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. That was ________________ to happen.
  16. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. bank — for money
  2. shower — rain
  3. field — a subject
  4. cold — not warm
  5. bound — obliged
  6. field — farmland
  7. court — of law
  8. bound — tied together
  9. bank — of a river
  10. cold — an illness
  11. wound — an injury
  12. field — for sport
  13. capital — a city
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. bound — certain
  16. bank — for money
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. shower — to wash
  20. wound — an injury
  21. court — for sport
  22. capital — money
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. court — of a king

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