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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 116 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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. clip — for paper
  3. hand — in cards
  4. hand — help
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. court — of a king
  7. clip — to cut
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. content — the amount
  10. pitch — a sports field
  11. game — a match
  12. pitch — completely
  13. content — happy
  14. court — of law
  15. game — wild animals
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. pass — to succeed
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. pass — to spend time
  20. season — in sport
  21. pass — a permit
  22. clip — a video
  23. season — of the year
  24. court — for sport

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