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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. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  11. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  18. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. capital — a city
  5. clip — a video
  6. kid — child
  7. kid — to tease
  8. mate — a partner
  9. clip — for paper
  10. vault — a safe
  11. board — a committee
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. mate — a friend
  14. capital — money
  15. vault — in gymnastics
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. board — to get on
  18. vault — an arched ceiling
  19. perch — the fish
  20. clip — to cut
  21. board — a flat piece
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. bat — the animal
  24. capital — a big letter

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