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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  19. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  20. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  21. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. sharp — clever
  3. squash — the sport
  4. capital — money
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. racket — a loud noise
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. bark — to shout
  9. clip — to cut
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. squash — to crush
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — for paper
  18. kick — in football
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. kick — with a leg
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. cold — not warm
  24. clip — a video

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