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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. face — to point toward
  3. wake — a trail
  4. ball — a dance
  5. court — of a king
  6. capital — a city
  7. ball — a great time
  8. clip — for paper
  9. face — to confront
  10. clip — to cut
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. capital — money
  15. clip — a video
  16. wind — moving air
  17. wind — moving air
  18. ball — a round shape
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. court — for sport
  22. face — part of the head
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. court — of law

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