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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. I'll be taking the ________________.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  13. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  17. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  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. tube — the underground
  2. court — of law
  3. court — for sport
  4. race — a contest
  5. clip — a video
  6. object — to protest
  7. tear — from crying
  8. object — a thing
  9. tube — a container
  10. cold — an illness
  11. race — the arms race
  12. board — a flat piece
  13. object — an aim
  14. tear — to rip
  15. race — humankind
  16. board — to get on
  17. board — a committee
  18. clip — to cut
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. court — of a king
  22. tear — from crying
  23. cold — not warm
  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