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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. Have you met the new head ________________?
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The ball is in your ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. court — of a king
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. capital — money
  6. land — to come down
  7. court — of law
  8. tube — the underground
  9. pop — to visit
  10. clip — to cut
  11. land — ground
  12. band — a music group
  13. tube — a container
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. clip — a video
  16. clip — for paper
  17. court — for sport
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. capital — a city
  20. band — a ring
  21. pop — soda
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. pop — music

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