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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. When was this ________________ built?
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. kick — in football
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. rest — a break
  6. land — ground
  7. land — to come down
  8. game — a match
  9. court — for sport
  10. temple — side of the head
  11. hand — in cards
  12. court — of a king
  13. rest — what's left
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. land — a country
  16. hand — help
  17. temple — a place of worship
  18. rest — what's left
  19. clip — a video
  20. game — wild animals
  21. clip — to cut
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. court — of law
  24. game — a kind of play

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