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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: shower · court · current · land · hide · wound · pass · cold

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  4. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  8. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. cold — not warm
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. hide — animal skin
  5. land — ground
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. current — of water
  8. current — happening now
  9. land — to come down
  10. wound — an injury
  11. court — for sport
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. pass — a permit
  14. court — of law
  15. cold — an illness
  16. wound — an injury
  17. pass — to succeed
  18. court — of a king
  19. shower — rain
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. current — electric
  22. shower — to wash
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pass — to spend time

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