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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 120 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: stem · court · land · suit · race · hand · cold · mug

  1. Where did you ________________ them?
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. When will it ________________ you to start?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  16. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. mug — to rob
  2. land — to come down
  3. land — ground
  4. mug — a cup
  5. land — a country
  6. cold — not warm
  7. hand — help
  8. court — of law
  9. court — for sport
  10. race — the arms race
  11. race — humankind
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. suit — to fit
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. suit — in cards
  16. suit — clothes
  17. cold — an illness
  18. hand — in cards
  19. race — a contest
  20. mug — a face
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. court — of a king
  24. stem — to come from

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