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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. saw — the tool
  3. chest — a box
  4. race — humankind
  5. band — a music group
  6. band — a ring
  7. capital — money
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. chest — of your body
  10. race — a contest
  11. clip — a video
  12. saw — the tool
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. saw — past of 'see'
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. chest — of your body
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. fall — to drop
  19. clip — for paper
  20. clip — to cut
  21. fall — the season
  22. fall — to drop
  23. race — the arms race
  24. mine — for digging

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