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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. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  21. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. bore — to tire
  3. cold — not warm
  4. court — for sport
  5. clip — a video
  6. bear — the animal
  7. spring — the season
  8. bore — gave birth
  9. march — the month
  10. spring — of water
  11. cold — an illness
  12. bear — the animal
  13. march — the month
  14. bore — to drill
  15. clip — for paper
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. spring — a coil
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. bear — to put up with
  21. snap — to click
  22. clip — to cut
  23. march — music
  24. court — of a king

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