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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: cabinet · band · court · wound · land · spell · degree · lean

  1. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. What do you think of the new ________________?
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. band — a ring
  3. court — of law
  4. lean — thin
  5. band — a music group
  6. land — ground
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. court — for sport
  9. spell — a short time
  10. wound — an injury
  11. cabinet — ministers
  12. spell — magic
  13. cabinet — a cupboard
  14. degree — from a university
  15. cabinet — ministers
  16. lean — to bend
  17. lean — to rest against
  18. degree — an amount
  19. land — a country
  20. land — to come down
  21. court — of a king
  22. degree — temperature
  23. wound — an injury
  24. spell — letters

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