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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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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: race · wound · mug · court · drill · ball · last · cold

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. Where did you ________________ them?
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. court — of law
  3. ball — a round shape
  4. court — of a king
  5. last — to go on
  6. last — finally
  7. mug — to rob
  8. drill — the tool
  9. ball — a great time
  10. cold — an illness
  11. ball — a dance
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. mug — a cup
  14. race — the arms race
  15. drill — a practice
  16. race — a contest
  17. mug — a face
  18. court — for sport
  19. wound — an injury
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. race — humankind
  23. wound — an injury
  24. drill — army training

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