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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. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. court — for sport
  3. tear — from crying
  4. lean — to rest against
  5. game — a match
  6. pop — soda
  7. tear — to rip
  8. clip — a video
  9. lean — thin
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. pop — to visit
  12. clip — for paper
  13. tear — from crying
  14. clip — to cut
  15. lean — to bend
  16. spring — the season
  17. court — of a king
  18. spring — a coil
  19. game — wild animals
  20. pop — music
  21. capital — money
  22. capital — a city
  23. spring — of water
  24. game — a kind of play

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