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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: court · cold · present · tear · file · board

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  9. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. board — to get on
  3. cold — an illness
  4. present — a gift
  5. board — a committee
  6. tear — from crying
  7. cold — not warm
  8. board — a flat piece
  9. present — there
  10. tear — to rip
  11. court — of a king
  12. file — a document
  13. court — for sport
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. file — a line of people
  16. file — a tool
  17. present — the time now
  18. tear — from crying

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