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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: cold · band · mate · court · vault · capital · pitcher · snap

  1. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. court — of law
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. band — a music group
  5. court — of a king
  6. mate — to breed
  7. cold — not warm
  8. capital — a city
  9. vault — in gymnastics
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. capital — money
  13. mate — a partner
  14. court — for sport
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. band — a ring
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — an illness
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. vault — a safe
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. snap — to click
  23. vault — an arched ceiling
  24. band — a rubber band

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