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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. land — ground
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. court — of a king
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. court — of law
  9. fall — to drop
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. fall — the season
  14. land — a country
  15. hand — help
  16. hand — in cards
  17. clip — to cut
  18. land — to come down
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. fall — to drop
  21. court — for sport
  22. clip — a video
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. clip — for paper

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