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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. clip — a video
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. last — final
  5. last — finally
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — not warm
  8. mine — for digging
  9. fall — to drop
  10. clip — for paper
  11. capital — money
  12. cold — an illness
  13. stick — a piece of wood
  14. drill — a practice
  15. last — to go on
  16. drill — the tool
  17. clip — to cut
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. fall — to drop
  20. stick — to attach or keep to
  21. fall — the season
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. drill — army training

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