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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: tear · racket · coach · clip · wound · court · degree · swing

  1. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  2. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  12. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. swing — in golf
  4. wound — an injury
  5. court — for sport
  6. clip — to cut
  7. court — of a king
  8. clip — a video
  9. degree — an amount
  10. degree — from a university
  11. racket — a loud noise
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. swing — to play on
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. tear — to rip
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. clip — for paper
  18. swing — music
  19. wound — an injury
  20. court — of law
  21. tear — from crying
  22. tear — from crying
  23. degree — temperature
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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