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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.

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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. file — a tool
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. fall — to drop
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. capital — a city
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. mate — a friend
  10. saw — past of 'see'
  11. capital — money
  12. clip — to cut
  13. mate — to breed
  14. snap — to click
  15. perch — the fish
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. clip — for paper
  18. file — a line of people
  19. fall — the season
  20. saw — the tool
  21. file — a document
  22. fall — to drop
  23. saw — the tool
  24. clip — a video

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