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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. When are we going to ________________?
  3. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  12. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. land — to come down
  3. racket — for tennis
  4. capital — money
  5. clip — a video
  6. craft — boats
  7. clip — for paper
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. file — a tool
  10. land — a country
  11. craft — a handicraft
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. race — the arms race
  14. kid — child
  15. craft — a skill
  16. race — a contest
  17. land — ground
  18. racket — a loud noise
  19. file — a line of people
  20. race — humankind
  21. clip — to cut
  22. file — a document
  23. kid — to tease
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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