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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 120 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. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  9. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  12. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  13. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. net — for catching
  3. rock — music
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. net — after costs
  6. degree — from a university
  7. spell — a short time
  8. rock — to move gently
  9. craft — a skill
  10. degree — temperature
  11. rock — a stone
  12. craft — boats
  13. craft — a handicraft
  14. spell — letters
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. court — of a king
  17. cold — not warm
  18. net — in sport
  19. court — of law
  20. content — happy
  21. spell — magic
  22. degree — an amount
  23. content — the amount
  24. cold — an illness

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