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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: date · clip · face · pound · game · land · club · court

  1. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — a group
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. game — wild animals
  5. face — to confront
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. clip — a video
  8. land — to come down
  9. club — for dancing
  10. clip — to cut
  11. clip — for paper
  12. court — of a king
  13. court — for sport
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. club — for golf
  17. date — the fruit
  18. pound — a weight
  19. court — of law
  20. game — a match
  21. face — to point toward
  22. face — part of the head
  23. land — a country
  24. land — ground

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