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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. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. toast — the most admired
  3. ground — a position
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. court — of law
  7. court — of a king
  8. toast — bread
  9. cap — of ice
  10. toast — a drink to someone
  11. cap — a lid
  12. band — a music group
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cap — a hat
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. ground — the earth
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. band — a ring
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. rash — a series
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. ground — crushed
  23. cold — not warm
  24. rash — hasty

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