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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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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. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  9. David sat on the ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  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. scale — in music
  2. court — of a king
  3. clip — to cut
  4. sharp — clever
  5. bat — the animal
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. degree — temperature
  8. swing — music
  9. swing — to play on
  10. degree — an amount
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. degree — from a university
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. swing — in golf
  15. court — for sport
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. hand — in cards
  18. clip — for paper
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. hand — help
  21. clip — a video
  22. court — of law
  23. bat — for baseball
  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