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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 120 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: cold · deal · court · clip · arm · face

  1. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. My father caught me by the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — to handle
  2. face — to confront
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. arm — part of the body
  5. clip — for paper
  6. court — for sport
  7. clip — to cut
  8. deal — a big deal
  9. court — of a king
  10. face — part of the head
  11. clip — a video
  12. court — of law
  13. face — to point toward
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — not warm
  18. arm — part of the body

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