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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: bulb · pound · cold · straw · bat · race · bark · court

  1. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. The light ________________ burned out.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I've got to change the light ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  20. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  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. court — of a king
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. bulb — for light
  4. court — for sport
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. bat — the animal
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bulb — for light
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. race — the arms race
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. bulb — of a plant
  17. bark — to shout
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. pound — a weight
  20. pound — to hit hard
  21. race — humankind
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. race — a contest
  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