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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. drill — army training
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. net — for catching
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. kid — child
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. net — after costs
  10. clip — a video
  11. perch — the fish
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. capital — a city
  15. net — in sport
  16. clip — to cut
  17. clip — for paper
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. stock — goods
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. capital — money
  22. stock — shares
  23. drill — the tool
  24. drill — a practice

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