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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 116 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: ground · court · spell · fan · straw · bat · pound · tear

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. spell — letters
  3. court — of a king
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. ground — a position
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. bat — the animal
  12. pound — to hit hard
  13. tear — from crying
  14. spell — magic
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. ground — crushed
  17. spell — a short time
  18. pound — a weight
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. court — for sport
  21. tear — to rip
  22. ground — the earth
  23. fan — to cool the air
  24. tear — from crying

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