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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: court · scale · content · prune · rest · firm · net · cold

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. net — after costs
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. prune — to trim
  5. prune — to trim
  6. court — of a king
  7. firm — decided
  8. scale — size or range
  9. net — for catching
  10. rest — what's left
  11. scale — in music
  12. firm — a company
  13. content — happy
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. rest — a break
  16. cold — an illness
  17. firm — steady
  18. court — for sport
  19. cold — not warm
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. content — the amount
  23. net — in sport
  24. rest — what's left

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