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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. court — for sport
  3. clip — to cut
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. kick — a thrill
  6. court — of law
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. kick — in football
  9. root — of a word
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. clip — a video
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. clip — for paper
  15. court — of a king
  16. scale — in music
  17. wake — a trail
  18. cold — not warm
  19. root — of a plant
  20. fork — in a road
  21. cold — an illness
  22. root — the cause
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. scale — size or range

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