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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. The light ________________ burned out.
  14. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  15. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. I've got to change the light ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. court — for sport
  3. bank — of a river
  4. content — happy
  5. court — of law
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. drill — the tool
  8. content — the amount
  9. ground — the earth
  10. bank — for money
  11. clip — a video
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. bulb — for light
  14. bulb — of a plant
  15. bank — for money
  16. court — of a king
  17. drill — a practice
  18. bulb — for light
  19. cold — an illness
  20. cold — not warm
  21. ground — a position
  22. ground — crushed
  23. drill — army training
  24. clip — to cut

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