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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: clip · stock · scale · spell · cell · shower · court · deal

  1. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. scale — in music
  3. spell — magic
  4. court — of law
  5. cell — a phone
  6. court — for sport
  7. shower — to wash
  8. stock — shares
  9. shower — rain
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. deal — a big deal
  13. spell — a short time
  14. clip — to cut
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. clip — a video
  17. deal — an agreement
  18. spell — letters
  19. scale — size or range
  20. stock — goods
  21. cell — in biology
  22. deal — to handle
  23. clip — for paper
  24. court — of a king

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