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

Word bank: hide · land · cold · pound · court · trunk

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  16. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. land — ground
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. land — a country
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. land — to come down
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. court — for sport
  10. hide — animal skin
  11. cold — not warm
  12. court — of law
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. pound — a weight
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. court — of a king

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