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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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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: court · stem · spring · game · bay · band · straw · cold

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  11. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. My mare is ________________ in color.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. band — a music group
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. spring — a coil
  5. spring — of water
  6. cold — not warm
  7. stem — of a plant
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. court — of a king
  10. bay — a part of the sea
  11. bay — to keep at bay
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. spring — the season
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. game — a match
  16. bay — a horse colour
  17. cold — an illness
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. court — of law
  20. stem — to come from
  21. game — wild animals
  22. court — for sport
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. band — a rubber band

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