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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: degree · perch · cap · cell · wound · chest · court · race

  1. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. court — for sport
  3. cap — of ice
  4. court — of law
  5. degree — from a university
  6. perch — the fish
  7. chest — of your body
  8. race — humankind
  9. cell — a phone
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. cap — a lid
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. race — the arms race
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. chest — of your body
  16. chest — a box
  17. cell — in biology
  18. race — a contest
  19. degree — an amount
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. court — of a king
  22. degree — temperature
  23. cap — a hat
  24. wound — an injury

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