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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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Word bank
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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: ground · last · scale · nail · court · band · pitch · cold

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  11. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The ________________ went through the wall.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  21. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. ground — crushed
  3. scale — size or range
  4. cold — not warm
  5. ground — the earth
  6. last — final
  7. court — for sport
  8. last — finally
  9. scale — in music
  10. pitch — a sales talk
  11. nail — for a hammer
  12. last — to go on
  13. court — of a king
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. band — a music group
  18. ground — a position
  19. band — a ring
  20. pitch — completely
  21. pitch — a sports field
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. nail — on a finger

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