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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 116 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. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  7. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  18. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. court — of law
  3. cold — not warm
  4. current — happening now
  5. degree — from a university
  6. current — electric
  7. can — a tin
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. cold — an illness
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. can — a tin
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. row — to paddle
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. can — to be able to
  18. current — of water
  19. degree — an amount
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. degree — temperature
  22. row — a line
  23. court — of a king
  24. wake — a trail

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