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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: trunk · kid · court · wind · pop · content · clip · race

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. You don't need to ________________ round.
  3. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. pop — to visit
  3. trunk — of a tree
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. trunk — of an elephant
  6. wind — moving air
  7. court — of a king
  8. race — humankind
  9. pop — music
  10. race — a contest
  11. content — happy
  12. content — the amount
  13. court — of law
  14. court — for sport
  15. race — the arms race
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. wind — moving air
  19. clip — to cut
  20. pop — soda
  21. kid — child
  22. trunk — of a car
  23. clip — for paper
  24. clip — a video

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