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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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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: chip · bat · court · prune · net · staff · clip · dip

  1. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  11. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  12. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  15. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. court — of law
  3. clip — a video
  4. court — of a king
  5. net — after costs
  6. staff — employees
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — to cut
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. dip — a sauce
  11. dip — to dunk
  12. staff — employees
  13. court — for sport
  14. dip — to sink
  15. staff — a stick
  16. net — for catching
  17. prune — to trim
  18. prune — to trim
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. net — in sport
  24. chip — for betting

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