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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: court · lash · bat · clip · file · content · mine · press

  1. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  11. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. Did you ________________ the button?
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. court — of law
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. file — a tool
  5. press — newspapers
  6. clip — for paper
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. mine — for digging
  9. clip — to cut
  10. lash — a whip stroke
  11. lash — an eyelash
  12. clip — a video
  13. court — of a king
  14. file — a document
  15. bat — the animal
  16. press — to push
  17. content — the amount
  18. file — a line of people
  19. court — for sport
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. press — a publisher
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. content — happy
  24. mine — belonging to me

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