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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: cold · mouse · clip · scale · shower · court · ball · chip

  1. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  8. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — the animal
  2. clip — a video
  3. shower — to wash
  4. chip — for betting
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cold — not warm
  7. mouse — the animal
  8. chip — in a computer
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. mouse — for a computer
  12. court — of law
  13. scale — in music
  14. court — for sport
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. clip — for paper
  17. shower — rain
  18. chip — to eat
  19. ball — a dance
  20. scale — size or range
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. court — of a king
  23. ball — a great time
  24. clip — to cut

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