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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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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: shower · tear · tube · field · chip · clip · court · chair

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. chair — a leader
  3. clip — to cut
  4. tear — from crying
  5. shower — to wash
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. chip — to eat
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. chip — in a computer
  11. tear — from crying
  12. field — farmland
  13. field — for sport
  14. shower — rain
  15. clip — a video
  16. court — for sport
  17. tube — the underground
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. court — of a king
  20. court — of law
  21. chip — for betting
  22. tube — a container
  23. tear — to rip
  24. field — a subject

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