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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 · file · pitcher · pop · mark · row · scale · clip

  1. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — music
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. mark — to pay attention
  5. clip — to cut
  6. court — for sport
  7. row — to paddle
  8. scale — in music
  9. pop — to visit
  10. clip — a video
  11. court — of a king
  12. file — a line of people
  13. mark — a trace
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. court — of law
  16. mark — a grade
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. clip — for paper
  19. file — a tool
  20. row — a line
  21. scale — size or range
  22. file — a document
  23. pop — soda
  24. pitcher — a jug

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