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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. The tickets are free of ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. Where can I ________________ my mobile?

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. capital — a city
  3. file — a document
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. field — for sport
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. band — a music group
  8. clip — for paper
  9. field — farmland
  10. charge — in control
  11. band — a ring
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. field — a subject
  14. capital — money
  15. file — a line of people
  16. file — a tool
  17. clip — a video
  18. clip — to cut
  19. snap — to click
  20. charge — a price
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. charge — electricity

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