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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. What do you think of the new ________________?
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. hand — help
  4. cabinet — ministers
  5. clip — a video
  6. cabinet — a cupboard
  7. field — a subject
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cabinet — ministers
  11. field — for sport
  12. court — for sport
  13. kick — a thrill
  14. wind — moving air
  15. clip — for paper
  16. court — of law
  17. hand — in cards
  18. clip — to cut
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. field — farmland
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. kick — in football
  24. court — of a king

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