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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  7. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  14. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. row — a line
  3. capital — a city
  4. pass — to succeed
  5. row — to paddle
  6. track — to keep track
  7. track — a song
  8. clip — to cut
  9. clip — a video
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. prune — to trim
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. pass — to spend time
  14. track — a path
  15. prune — to trim
  16. capital — money
  17. bat — the animal
  18. wax — to grow
  19. pass — a permit
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wax — in the ear
  22. clip — for paper
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. bat — for baseball

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