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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: wound · court · pitcher · pop · rule · spring · race · cold

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. He is an ace ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. You don't need to ________________ round.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. wound — an injury
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. spring — the season
  5. pop — music
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. court — for sport
  8. rule — government
  9. race — humankind
  10. rule — to rule out
  11. pop — soda
  12. pitcher — in baseball
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. spring — of water
  15. rule — a law
  16. race — a contest
  17. spring — a coil
  18. pop — to visit
  19. cold — not warm
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. court — of law
  22. race — the arms race
  23. court — of a king
  24. cold — an illness

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