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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 116 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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  19. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  20. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  24. When will it ________________ you to start?

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. cold — an illness
  4. court — of law
  5. clip — a video
  6. suit — clothes
  7. clip — to cut
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. shower — to wash
  10. court — of a king
  11. cold — not warm
  12. spell — magic
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. ball — a dance
  15. spell — a short time
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. lash — an eyelash
  19. ball — a great time
  20. lash — a whip stroke
  21. shower — rain
  22. spell — letters
  23. suit — in cards
  24. suit — to fit

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