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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: cold · court · roll · rock · stand · kid · fan · ground

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  20. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  21. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  22. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  23. I can't ________________ this cold.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. cold — not warm
  3. ground — the earth
  4. rock — music
  5. rock — a stone
  6. roll — a list
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. roll — a cake
  10. cold — an illness
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. ground — a position
  13. court — for sport
  14. ground — crushed
  15. court — of a king
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. kid — child
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. fan — to cool the air
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. stand — for spectators
  22. rock — to move gently
  23. stand — to bear
  24. court — of law

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