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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. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  8. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. A black ________________ roamed the forest.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. capital — money
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. clip — a video
  5. mine — for digging
  6. pound — a weight
  7. chip — for betting
  8. pound — to hit hard
  9. clip — to cut
  10. file — a document
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. snap — to click
  13. file — a tool
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. bear — the animal
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. capital — a city
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. bear — to put up with
  21. clip — for paper
  22. pound — for dogs
  23. file — a line of people
  24. bear — the animal

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