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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. When are we going to ________________?
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. That was ________________ to happen.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. land — to come down
  3. march — the month
  4. march — music
  5. chair — a leader
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. drill — a practice
  8. land — a country
  9. court — of law
  10. bound — certain
  11. march — the month
  12. bound — tied together
  13. drill — army training
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. capital — money
  17. shower — to wash
  18. capital — a city
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. court — of a king
  21. shower — rain
  22. drill — the tool
  23. bound — obliged
  24. land — ground

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