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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: bear · staff · court · hand · spring · bat · clip · tube

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. hand — in cards
  3. court — of law
  4. clip — to cut
  5. bear — to put up with
  6. bat — the animal
  7. staff — employees
  8. clip — for paper
  9. bear — the animal
  10. clip — a video
  11. court — of a king
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. bear — the animal
  15. court — for sport
  16. staff — employees
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. spring — of water
  19. tube — a container
  20. spring — the season
  21. tube — the underground
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. staff — a stick
  24. spring — a coil

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