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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. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. Did you ________________ the meat?
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of a king
  2. clip — for paper
  3. cold — not warm
  4. court — of law
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. chip — to eat
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. tube — the underground
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. chip — for betting
  12. clip — to cut
  13. clip — a video
  14. season — in sport
  15. tube — a container
  16. court — for sport
  17. season — to add flavour
  18. last — to go on
  19. last — finally
  20. season — of the year
  21. arm — a part of something
  22. last — final
  23. cold — an illness
  24. chip — in a computer

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