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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: clip · stand · craft · cold · tear · court

  1. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I can't ________________ this cold.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. clip — for paper
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. stand — to bear
  5. tear — to rip
  6. court — of law
  7. cold — an illness
  8. craft — a handicraft
  9. tear — from crying
  10. stand — on your feet
  11. court — of a king
  12. craft — a skill
  13. tear — from crying
  14. court — for sport
  15. stand — for spectators
  16. cold — not warm
  17. clip — to cut
  18. clip — a video

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