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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 116 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: court · shower · clip · racket · swing · scale · capital · sharp

  1. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — for tennis
  2. clip — a video
  3. racket — a loud noise
  4. swing — in golf
  5. court — of a king
  6. swing — music
  7. sharp — clever
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. capital — money
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. scale — in music
  13. clip — to cut
  14. scale — size or range
  15. shower — rain
  16. clip — for paper
  17. court — of law
  18. capital — a city
  19. swing — to play on
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. court — for sport
  23. shower — to wash
  24. capital — a big letter

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