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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: net · cabinet · shower · court · ball · trunk · cold · chest

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. What do you think of the new ________________?
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. The King held a masked ________________.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. chest — of your body
  3. ball — a great time
  4. trunk — of a tree
  5. net — after costs
  6. court — of law
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cabinet — ministers
  9. shower — rain
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. trunk — of an elephant
  12. net — in sport
  13. chest — of your body
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cabinet — ministers
  17. chest — a box
  18. net — for catching
  19. cabinet — a cupboard
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. ball — a dance
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. court — of a king
  24. shower — to wash

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