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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: perch · court · club · race · band · cold · branch · sharp

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. band — a ring
  5. cold — not warm
  6. court — for sport
  7. club — for golf
  8. sharp — clever
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. branch — a division
  11. court — of a king
  12. cold — an illness
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. club — for dancing
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. club — a group
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. race — humankind
  19. branch — of a tree
  20. race — the arms race
  21. race — a contest
  22. perch — the fish
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. court — of law

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