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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. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  20. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. snap — to click
  3. court — of a king
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. clip — to cut
  7. rest — what's left
  8. clip — for paper
  9. stem — to come from
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. rest — a break
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. court — for sport
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. band — a ring
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. court — of law
  18. hand — help
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. fan — to cool the air
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. clip — a video
  23. rest — what's left
  24. band — a music group

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