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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 water is too ________________.
  2. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  10. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We're almost out of ________________.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. dip — a sauce
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. bat — the animal
  5. band — a music group
  6. pop — music
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. pop — to visit
  9. chair — a leader
  10. dip — to sink
  11. cold — an illness
  12. pop — soda
  13. last — finally
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. band — a ring
  19. last — to go on
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. last — final
  22. court — for sport
  23. court — of law
  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