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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 116 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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  3. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. The ________________ market has crashed.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. The ________________ took off on time.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  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. clip — to cut
  2. plane — a tool
  3. fork — in a road
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. fork — to eat with
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. plane — in geometry
  9. shower — to wash
  10. capital — a city
  11. stock — shares
  12. stock — goods
  13. spring — the season
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. shower — rain
  16. plane — an aircraft
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. capital — money
  19. clip — for paper
  20. spring — of water
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. spring — a coil
  24. clip — a video

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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