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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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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: tear · saw · court · ball · kid · cold · content · pound

  1. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  2. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. He works in a ________________ mill.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. She's very handy with a ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — for dogs
  2. pound — a weight
  3. content — happy
  4. ball — a dance
  5. kid — to tease
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. saw — past of 'see'
  8. court — of law
  9. cold — an illness
  10. saw — the tool
  11. court — for sport
  12. cold — not warm
  13. kid — child
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. content — the amount
  16. tear — from crying
  17. saw — the tool
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. tear — from crying
  20. ball — a great time
  21. ball — a round shape
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. court — of a king
  24. tear — to rip

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