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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 120 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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  24. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. prune — to trim
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. snap — to click
  10. cold — not warm
  11. cold — an illness
  12. bat — the animal
  13. tube — a container
  14. tube — the underground
  15. leaves — of a tree
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. capital — money
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. bark — to shout
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. leaves — to go away
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. leaves — lets stay
  24. prune — to trim

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