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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: racket · clip · tear · pound · ground · court

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. ground — crushed
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. clip — to cut
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. tear — to rip
  8. court — of law
  9. pound — a weight
  10. racket — a loud noise
  11. clip — for paper
  12. clip — a video
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. tear — from crying
  15. tear — from crying
  16. court — for sport
  17. court — of a king
  18. ground — the earth

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