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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  8. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  16. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. clip — to cut
  4. capital — a city
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. track — a song
  8. staff — a stick
  9. scale — in music
  10. track — to keep track
  11. capital — money
  12. clip — for paper
  13. scale — size or range
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. staff — employees
  16. track — a path
  17. clip — a video
  18. march — the month
  19. prune — to trim
  20. prune — to trim
  21. march — music
  22. march — the month
  23. game — a match
  24. staff — employees

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