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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. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  5. Have you met the new head ________________?
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  15. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. court — of a king
  3. prune — to trim
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. prune — to trim
  8. cold — an illness
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. hand — in cards
  11. clip — to cut
  12. clip — a video
  13. hand — help
  14. object — an aim
  15. object — to protest
  16. band — a ring
  17. clip — for paper
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. court — of law
  21. court — for sport
  22. object — a thing
  23. band — a music group
  24. prune — the fruit

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