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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. snap — to click
  4. chair — a leader
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. track — to keep track
  8. cell — a phone
  9. track — a path
  10. clip — for paper
  11. capital — money
  12. fine — high quality
  13. capital — a city
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. clip — to cut
  16. track — a song
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. cell — in biology
  20. wound — an injury
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. wound — an injury
  23. clip — a video
  24. fine — a penalty

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