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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 116 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: ruler · bat · court · fall · bear · tear · kid · content

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. The people resisted their cruel ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. court — of a king
  3. bear — the animal
  4. fall — to drop
  5. content — the amount
  6. tear — to rip
  7. bear — the animal
  8. tear — from crying
  9. tear — from crying
  10. fall — to drop
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. court — of law
  14. ruler — for measuring
  15. bat — the animal
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. bear — to put up with
  18. kid — to tease
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. content — happy
  21. ruler — for measuring
  22. kid — child
  23. fall — the season
  24. ruler — a monarch

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