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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: pound · spell · land · court · race · cold · vault · pitcher

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  8. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. race — a contest
  3. spell — a short time
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. court — of a king
  7. vault — a safe
  8. spell — magic
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. court — for sport
  11. land — a country
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. race — the arms race
  14. cold — not warm
  15. vault — in gymnastics
  16. court — of law
  17. cold — an illness
  18. race — humankind
  19. land — ground
  20. pound — a weight
  21. land — to come down
  22. vault — an arched ceiling
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. pound — for dogs

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