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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 120 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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  4. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. capital — money
  3. rock — a stone
  4. rock — music
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. rock — to move gently
  7. capital — a city
  8. wake — a trail
  9. calf — of the leg
  10. chest — a box
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. chest — of your body
  13. clip — for paper
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. clip — a video
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. calf — a young animal
  18. scale — size or range
  19. scale — in music
  20. chest — of your body
  21. clip — to cut
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. calf — a young 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