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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. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  13. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — for dogs
  2. shower — to wash
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. kick — with a leg
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. band — a ring
  7. clip — a video
  8. capital — a city
  9. capital — money
  10. clip — for paper
  11. clip — to cut
  12. branch — a division
  13. kick — a thrill
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. wind — moving air
  17. band — a music group
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. kick — in football
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. pound — a weight
  22. shower — rain
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. wind — moving air

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