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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. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. That was ________________ to happen.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  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. fork — to eat with
  2. pop — music
  3. bound — obliged
  4. bat — the animal
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. trunk — of a tree
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. clip — to cut
  9. fork — in a road
  10. wound — an injury
  11. bound — tied together
  12. capital — money
  13. bound — certain
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. wound — an injury
  19. pop — to visit
  20. pop — soda
  21. clip — a video
  22. capital — a city
  23. clip — for paper
  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