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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 120 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
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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 · mate · cold · kid · sharp · hand · scale · court

  1. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. court — for sport
  3. cold — an illness
  4. mate — to breed
  5. clip — a video
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. hand — in cards
  8. cold — not warm
  9. mate — a friend
  10. court — of law
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. scale — in music
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. court — of a king
  15. scale — size or range
  16. hand — help
  17. sharp — clever
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. clip — for paper
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. clip — to cut
  22. kid — to tease
  23. kid — child
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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