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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. The tickets are free of ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. court — for sport
  3. charge — a price
  4. court — of law
  5. band — a music group
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. charge — in control
  8. shower — rain
  9. court — of a king
  10. cold — an illness
  11. kid — child
  12. cold — not warm
  13. shower — to wash
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. field — a subject
  16. net — for catching
  17. net — after costs
  18. field — farmland
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. kid — to tease
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. charge — electricity
  23. net — in sport
  24. band — a ring

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