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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. This piece is in a major ________________.
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. I've got the luggage in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. clip — to cut
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. content — the amount
  7. clip — for paper
  8. court — of a king
  9. court — of law
  10. chest — of your body
  11. key — the most important part
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — an illness
  15. key — in music
  16. key — for a lock
  17. chest — of your body
  18. clip — a video
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. content — happy
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. patient — calm and waiting
  23. chest — a box
  24. trunk — of a car

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