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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  22. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  23. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. row — a line
  3. cap — of ice
  4. clip — to cut
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. rest — a break
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. content — happy
  9. cap — a hat
  10. racket — for tennis
  11. content — the amount
  12. cap — a lid
  13. clip — a video
  14. clip — for paper
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. capital — a city
  17. capital — money
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. court — of law
  20. court — of a king
  21. racket — a loud noise
  22. rest — what's left
  23. rest — what's left
  24. row — to paddle

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