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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: shower · court · row · object · tear · land · cold · pitcher

  1. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  18. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of a king
  2. court — for sport
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. cold — an illness
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. row — to paddle
  8. land — a country
  9. tear — from crying
  10. land — to come down
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. land — ground
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. object — an aim
  16. shower — rain
  17. object — a thing
  18. object — to protest
  19. tear — to rip
  20. tear — from crying
  21. cold — not warm
  22. shower — to wash
  23. court — of law
  24. row — a line

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