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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. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  5. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  6. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  7. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  13. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — to hit hard
  2. spell — letters
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. track — a path
  5. cue — a hint
  6. cue — a signal
  7. pound — for dogs
  8. clip — to cut
  9. pound — a weight
  10. court — of law
  11. march — the month
  12. cue — for pool
  13. track — a song
  14. spell — a short time
  15. track — to keep track
  16. march — the month
  17. spell — magic
  18. capital — money
  19. capital — a city
  20. march — music
  21. clip — a video
  22. court — for sport
  23. clip — for paper
  24. court — of a king

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