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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. last — finally
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. capital — money
  5. cell — in biology
  6. bear — to put up with
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. bear — the animal
  9. clip — a video
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. bear — the animal
  12. clip — to cut
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. last — to go on
  15. fall — the season
  16. fall — to drop
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. fall — to drop
  19. last — final
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. cell — a phone
  22. bark — to shout
  23. mine — for digging
  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