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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: court · season · fan · chair · clip · pitcher · degree · spring

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. season — in sport
  3. clip — a video
  4. spring — a coil
  5. fan — to cool the air
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. clip — to cut
  8. season — of the year
  9. court — of a king
  10. spring — the season
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. court — for sport
  13. clip — for paper
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. degree — from a university
  16. court — of law
  17. degree — temperature
  18. spring — of water
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. degree — an amount
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. fan — a supporter
  24. pitcher — a jug

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