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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 · pop · ground · hide · bowl · kid · cold · content

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  23. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  24. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. content — the amount
  4. ground — a position
  5. cold — an illness
  6. content — happy
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. pop — soda
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. bowl — to roll
  12. court — for sport
  13. pop — music
  14. court — of a king
  15. ground — crushed
  16. pop — to visit
  17. kid — to tease
  18. kid — child
  19. ground — the earth
  20. cold — not warm
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. hide — animal skin
  23. hide — to keep secret
  24. bowl — a dish

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