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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. This piece is in a major ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  24. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. key — in music
  2. prune — to trim
  3. land — to come down
  4. clip — a video
  5. tear — to rip
  6. key — the most important part
  7. land — ground
  8. tear — from crying
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. court — for sport
  11. court — of law
  12. court — of a king
  13. ground — the earth
  14. prune — to trim
  15. clip — for paper
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. tear — from crying
  18. clip — to cut
  19. ground — crushed
  20. land — a country
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. ground — a position
  23. key — for a lock
  24. chair — a leader

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