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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: straw · patient · clip · race · chair · ground · march · court

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. race — the arms race
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. march — music
  5. race — a contest
  6. clip — a video
  7. court — of law
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. patient — calm and waiting
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. clip — to cut
  12. court — for sport
  13. ground — the earth
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. march — the month
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. chair — a leader
  19. march — the month
  20. clip — for paper
  21. court — of a king
  22. ground — crushed
  23. race — humankind
  24. patient — a sick person

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