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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: cue · root · season · game · court · tube · land · clip

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. cue — a signal
  3. tube — the underground
  4. cue — a hint
  5. court — of law
  6. game — a match
  7. cue — for pool
  8. land — to come down
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. clip — a video
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. tube — a container
  13. root — of a word
  14. court — of a king
  15. court — for sport
  16. land — a country
  17. season — in sport
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. clip — to cut
  20. season — of the year
  21. game — wild animals
  22. clip — for paper
  23. root — of a plant
  24. root — the cause

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