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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. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  9. The light ________________ burned out.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. I've got to change the light ________________.
  12. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. land — to come down
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. capital — a city
  6. clip — to cut
  7. spell — letters
  8. fine — all right
  9. bulb — for light
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. bulb — for light
  12. fine — a penalty
  13. clip — for paper
  14. spell — magic
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. fine — high quality
  17. land — ground
  18. land — a country
  19. spell — a short time
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. kick — in football
  22. clip — a video
  23. bulb — of a plant
  24. bat — the animal

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