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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. clip — for paper
  3. perch — the fish
  4. scale — size or range
  5. scale — in music
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. clip — a video
  8. tear — from crying
  9. last — final
  10. bass — low music
  11. bass — the instrument
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. last — to go on
  14. race — a contest
  15. tear — to rip
  16. race — humankind
  17. clip — to cut
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. bass — the fish
  20. capital — money
  21. race — the arms race
  22. tear — from crying
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. capital — a city

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