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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  18. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. court — of law
  3. clip — to cut
  4. tear — to rip
  5. content — happy
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. racket — a loud noise
  8. last — to go on
  9. tear — from crying
  10. degree — an amount
  11. court — of a king
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. content — the amount
  14. court — for sport
  15. last — finally
  16. degree — from a university
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. clip — a video
  20. last — final
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. tear — from crying
  23. mine — for digging
  24. degree — temperature

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