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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 116 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.

Words on the sheet
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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: clip · staff · land · spring · current · pop · court · wound

  1. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  16. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  24. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. current — of water
  3. court — of law
  4. staff — a stick
  5. clip — a video
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. court — for sport
  8. staff — employees
  9. land — to come down
  10. clip — to cut
  11. clip — for paper
  12. land — a country
  13. court — of a king
  14. spring — of water
  15. pop — music
  16. current — electric
  17. spring — the season
  18. land — ground
  19. spring — a coil
  20. wound — an injury
  21. pop — soda
  22. wound — an injury
  23. current — happening now
  24. staff — employees

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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