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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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Word bank
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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  7. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  13. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  14. My father caught me by the ________________.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. stick — a piece of wood
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. arm — a part of something
  5. capital — a city
  6. toast — a drink to someone
  7. swing — music
  8. cold — not warm
  9. clip — for paper
  10. capital — money
  11. field — for sport
  12. toast — bread
  13. arm — part of the body
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. swing — to play on
  16. field — farmland
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. swing — in golf
  19. clip — a video
  20. stick — a piece of wood
  21. field — a subject
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. toast — the most admired
  24. cold — an illness

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