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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. How do you ________________ your surname?
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. kid — child
  3. clip — for paper
  4. mate — a friend
  5. vault — a safe
  6. spell — magic
  7. kid — to tease
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. pound — a weight
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. field — a subject
  12. mate — to breed
  13. capital — a city
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. clip — a video
  16. capital — money
  17. field — for sport
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. vault — an arched ceiling
  20. spell — a short time
  21. spell — letters
  22. field — farmland
  23. vault — in gymnastics
  24. clip — to cut

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