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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  20. This piece is in a major ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. hand — help
  4. cell — a phone
  5. capital — a city
  6. capital — money
  7. kid — to tease
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. kid — child
  10. land — a country
  11. key — for a lock
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. clip — a video
  14. clip — for paper
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. clip — to cut
  17. land — to come down
  18. land — ground
  19. key — the most important part
  20. key — in music
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. cell — in biology
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. hand — in cards

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