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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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. bat — the animal
  3. clip — to cut
  4. fine — a penalty
  5. tear — to rip
  6. clip — a video
  7. court — of law
  8. pound — a weight
  9. clip — for paper
  10. field — farmland
  11. pound — for dogs
  12. tear — from crying
  13. fine — all right
  14. pitch — completely
  15. court — of a king
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. field — for sport
  19. field — a subject
  20. fine — high quality
  21. tear — from crying
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. pitch — a sports field

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