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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. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of a king
  2. mate — a friend
  3. court — of law
  4. mate — to breed
  5. net — in sport
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. tear — from crying
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. tear — to rip
  10. mate — a partner
  11. cold — an illness
  12. court — for sport
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. leaves — lets stay
  17. net — after costs
  18. tear — from crying
  19. leaves — to go away
  20. net — for catching
  21. cold — not warm
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. bat — the animal
  24. cold — the Cold War

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