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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: wind · stick · court · cold · land · clip · kid · plane

  1. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The ________________ took off on time.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  24. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. kid — child
  3. wind — moving air
  4. wind — moving air
  5. plane — a tool
  6. court — of a king
  7. land — ground
  8. clip — to cut
  9. court — of law
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. cold — an illness
  12. land — a country
  13. cold — not warm
  14. court — for sport
  15. clip — a video
  16. plane — an aircraft
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. land — to come down
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. kid — to tease
  22. clip — for paper
  23. stick — to attach or keep to
  24. stick — a piece of wood

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