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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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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: fan · cap · current · cold · land · ground · bowl · court

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  20. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. court — for sport
  3. land — ground
  4. current — happening now
  5. cold — not warm
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. bowl — a football final
  8. ground — crushed
  9. bowl — to roll
  10. land — to come down
  11. cap — a lid
  12. court — of law
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. land — a country
  16. current — of water
  17. cap — a hat
  18. court — of a king
  19. current — electric
  20. cap — of ice
  21. ground — the earth
  22. cold — an illness
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. ground — a position

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