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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: ground · patient · cold · rock · shower · bound · court · clip

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. That was ________________ to happen.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. cold — an illness
  3. clip — a video
  4. rock — a stone
  5. court — for sport
  6. ground — the earth
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bound — tied together
  9. clip — to cut
  10. court — of a king
  11. ground — crushed
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. rock — to move gently
  17. ground — a position
  18. shower — rain
  19. shower — to wash
  20. bound — obliged
  21. clip — for paper
  22. bound — certain
  23. cold — not warm
  24. rock — music

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