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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.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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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 · court · wound · clip · season · club · date · bat

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  5. Have you settled on a ________________?
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Did you ________________ the meat?
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. Spring is a pleasant ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. bat — the animal
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. club — for dancing
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. clip — to cut
  7. clip — for paper
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. club — for golf
  10. court — of a king
  11. cold — not warm
  12. date — the fruit
  13. wound — an injury
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. club — a group
  19. season — in sport
  20. clip — a video
  21. season — to add flavour
  22. court — for sport
  23. court — of law
  24. season — of the year

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