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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. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. clip — to cut
  3. clip — for paper
  4. capital — a city
  5. clip — a video
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. racket — a loud noise
  8. cell — a phone
  9. cell — in biology
  10. file — a tool
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. file — a document
  13. wind — moving air
  14. file — a line of people
  15. capital — money
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. wind — moving air

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