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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. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. prune — to trim
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. prune — to trim
  7. pitch — completely
  8. court — for sport
  9. face — to confront
  10. clip — to cut
  11. clip — for paper
  12. mine — for digging
  13. lean — to bend
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. court — of a king
  18. content — happy
  19. lean — thin
  20. face — part of the head
  21. content — the amount
  22. face — to point toward
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. clip — a video

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