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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: content · land · row · clip · calf · court · fan · wound

  1. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. content — the amount
  3. clip — a video
  4. land — a country
  5. calf — a young animal
  6. court — for sport
  7. wound — an injury
  8. row — a line
  9. content — happy
  10. court — of a king
  11. calf — a young animal
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. calf — of the leg
  15. clip — for paper
  16. row — to paddle
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. land — to come down
  20. land — ground
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. clip — to cut
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. wound — an injury

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