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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.

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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: tear · cold · club · ground · vault · clip · bear · game

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  3. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  7. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  18. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. club — for dancing
  3. vault — in gymnastics
  4. tear — to rip
  5. clip — a video
  6. vault — a safe
  7. vault — an arched ceiling
  8. ground — a position
  9. cold — not warm
  10. game — wild animals
  11. clip — to cut
  12. ground — the earth
  13. club — a group
  14. cold — an illness
  15. tear — from crying
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bear — the animal
  18. bear — to put up with
  19. ground — crushed
  20. tear — from crying
  21. bear — the animal
  22. club — for golf
  23. game — a match
  24. game — a kind of play

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