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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. march — the month
  3. club — for golf
  4. spring — the season
  5. fall — to drop
  6. ground — a position
  7. spring — a coil
  8. clip — for paper
  9. fall — the season
  10. spring — of water
  11. march — music
  12. club — for dancing
  13. court — for sport
  14. chair — a professorship
  15. ground — crushed
  16. fall — to drop
  17. club — a group
  18. court — of law
  19. ground — the earth
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. chair — a leader
  22. clip — a video
  23. clip — to cut
  24. court — of a king

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