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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. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. Have you met the new head ________________?
  21. Don't do anything ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. I seem to be developing a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a lid
  2. mine — for digging
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. court — of law
  5. cap — a hat
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cap — of ice
  8. game — a match
  9. court — of a king
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. cold — not warm
  15. rash — a series
  16. court — for sport
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. rash — hasty
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. game — wild animals
  24. rash — on the skin

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