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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 124 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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  4. The tickets are free of ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. clip — to cut
  3. charge — electricity
  4. charge — a price
  5. shower — to wash
  6. clip — for paper
  7. charge — in control
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. root — of a plant
  10. clip — a video
  11. kid — to tease
  12. jam — in traffic
  13. wound — an injury
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. jam — a tight spot
  16. shower — rain
  17. wound — an injury
  18. root — of a word
  19. capital — money
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. jam — to spread on bread
  23. root — the cause
  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