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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wound · tear · court · cold · degree · vault

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. tear — from crying
  4. wound — an injury
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. court — of law
  7. vault — in gymnastics
  8. degree — from a university
  9. vault — a safe
  10. tear — from crying
  11. cold — an illness
  12. tear — to rip
  13. degree — temperature
  14. degree — an amount
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cold — not warm
  17. court — of a king
  18. vault — an arched ceiling

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