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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: court · lie · cold · rule · race · craft · bat · band

  1. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  2. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  7. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  8. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — to rule out
  2. craft — a skill
  3. rule — a law
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. cold — an illness
  6. rule — government
  7. craft — boats
  8. lie — to recline
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. court — of law
  11. race — the arms race
  12. court — for sport
  13. court — of a king
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. band — a ring
  16. bat — the animal
  17. cold — not warm
  18. race — a contest
  19. craft — a handicraft
  20. band — a music group
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. race — humankind
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. band — a rubber band

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