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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. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. This piece is in a major ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  11. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  12. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. key — the most important part
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. clip — a video
  4. sharp — clever
  5. key — in music
  6. hand — help
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. court — for sport
  9. branch — a division
  10. key — for a lock
  11. bank — for money
  12. bank — for money
  13. cold — not warm
  14. clip — to cut
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bank — of a river
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. clip — for paper
  20. court — of a king
  21. hand — in cards
  22. court — of law
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. cold — the Cold War

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