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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. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — a penalty
  2. court — of law
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. pit — a fruit stone
  5. cold — not warm
  6. land — ground
  7. band — a music group
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. band — a ring
  10. pit — in a race
  11. court — for sport
  12. land — to come down
  13. cold — an illness
  14. fine — high quality
  15. spring — of water
  16. fine — all right
  17. land — a country
  18. shower — to wash
  19. spring — a coil
  20. court — of a king
  21. shower — rain
  22. spring — the season
  23. pit — a hole
  24. band — a rubber band

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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