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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  3. Where did you ________________ them?
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  12. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  13. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  14. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  17. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. racket — a loud noise
  3. mug — to rob
  4. cold — not warm
  5. clip — for paper
  6. court — of law
  7. spring — of water
  8. root — of a plant
  9. calf — of the leg
  10. cold — an illness
  11. root — of a word
  12. mug — a face
  13. mug — a cup
  14. racket — for tennis
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. calf — a young animal
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. spring — the season
  19. clip — to cut
  20. root — the cause
  21. clip — a video
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. court — of a king
  24. spring — a coil

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