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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  14. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. wind — moving air
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. capital — a city
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. vault — a safe
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. prune — to trim
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. wind — moving air
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. root — of a word
  14. vault — an arched ceiling
  15. root — the cause
  16. capital — money
  17. bat — the animal
  18. branch — a division
  19. clip — to cut
  20. clip — a video
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. prune — to trim
  24. root — of a plant

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