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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · cold · race · hide · spring · rash · tube · game

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. race — a contest
  3. game — wild animals
  4. court — for sport
  5. court — of law
  6. rash — hasty
  7. cold — an illness
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. race — the arms race
  10. rash — a series
  11. spring — a coil
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. spring — the season
  15. hide — animal skin
  16. spring — of water
  17. hide — to keep secret
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. tube — the underground
  20. hide — to keep secret
  21. game — a match
  22. tube — a container
  23. race — humankind
  24. court — of a king

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