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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  15. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. The tickets are free of ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. clip — for paper
  3. capital — money
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. wind — moving air
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. wind — moving air
  9. charge — in control
  10. clip — a video
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. march — the month
  14. racket — a loud noise
  15. charge — electricity
  16. capital — a city
  17. charge — a price
  18. hand — help
  19. hand — in cards
  20. march — the month
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. clip — to cut
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. march — music

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