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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. capital — a city
  3. last — finally
  4. last — to go on
  5. dip — to dunk
  6. clip — for paper
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. kick — with a leg
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. last — final
  11. row — to paddle
  12. clip — a video
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. degree — from a university
  15. dip — to sink
  16. dip — a sauce
  17. degree — temperature
  18. wind — moving air
  19. capital — money
  20. degree — an amount
  21. kick — a thrill
  22. wind — moving air
  23. row — a line
  24. kick — in football

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