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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. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. bear — the animal
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. last — to go on
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. cold — not warm
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. clip — to cut
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wound — an injury
  10. game — a match
  11. wound — an injury
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. court — of a king
  14. clip — for paper
  15. bear — the animal
  16. game — wild animals
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. court — for sport
  19. pitch — completely
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. last — final
  22. court — of law
  23. last — finally
  24. clip — a video

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