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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: shower · coach · wave · can · ground · court · cold · game

  1. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  4. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  11. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. wave — with your hand
  2. court — for sport
  3. can — a tin
  4. can — a tin
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. ground — the earth
  8. cold — an illness
  9. game — a match
  10. can — to be able to
  11. coach — pulled by horses
  12. court — of law
  13. ground — a position
  14. court — of a king
  15. shower — rain
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. ground — crushed
  18. cold — not warm
  19. game — wild animals
  20. shower — to wash
  21. wave — of the sea
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. wave — a sudden rise
  24. cold — the Cold War

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