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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 120 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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. clip — to cut
  3. court — for sport
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. land — a country
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. clip — for paper
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. bass — low music
  11. land — to come down
  12. row — a line
  13. court — of a king
  14. last — final
  15. land — ground
  16. chair — a leader
  17. last — finally
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. bass — the fish
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. last — to go on
  22. row — to paddle
  23. clip — a video
  24. patient — a sick person

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