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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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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: wake · court · ground · cold · wound · row · club · chair

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. There's no middle ________________.
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. ground — a position
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. wound — an injury
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. club — for golf
  7. club — a group
  8. wound — an injury
  9. club — for dancing
  10. row — to paddle
  11. court — for sport
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. cold — an illness
  14. court — of law
  15. row — a line
  16. ground — the earth
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — not warm
  19. wake — to stop sleeping
  20. wake — a trail
  21. court — of a king
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. chair — a leader
  24. row — a quarrel

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