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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: chip · roll · bound · present · land · court · shower · cold

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. That was ________________ to happen.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  19. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  20. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  21. We're on a ________________ here.
  22. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. roll — a list
  3. roll — a cake
  4. court — for sport
  5. land — ground
  6. court — of a king
  7. shower — to wash
  8. chip — in a computer
  9. cold — an illness
  10. land — a country
  11. bound — certain
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. bound — obliged
  14. present — there
  15. cold — not warm
  16. chip — for betting
  17. shower — rain
  18. bound — tied together
  19. present — the time now
  20. chip — to eat
  21. roll — on a roll
  22. present — a gift
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. land — to come down

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