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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  11. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. mark — a trace
  3. land — a country
  4. chest — of your body
  5. stock — shares
  6. capital — money
  7. chest — a box
  8. stock — goods
  9. capital — a city
  10. stock — a soup base
  11. mark — to pay attention
  12. mark — a grade
  13. clip — a video
  14. land — ground
  15. clip — for paper
  16. land — to come down
  17. clip — to cut
  18. chest — of your body

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