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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 · file · kick · march · hand · fall · race · court

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. fall — the season
  3. hand — in cards
  4. clip — for paper
  5. court — of law
  6. race — the arms race
  7. file — a document
  8. file — a line of people
  9. kick — in football
  10. march — the month
  11. hand — help
  12. kick — a thrill
  13. fall — to drop
  14. clip — to cut
  15. court — of a king
  16. court — for sport
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. march — music
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. fall — to drop
  21. clip — a video
  22. march — the month
  23. race — humankind
  24. file — a tool

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