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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. capital — a city
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. clip — a video
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. prune — to trim
  7. clip — to cut
  8. prune — to trim
  9. wound — an injury
  10. kick — in football
  11. bat — the animal
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. kick — a thrill
  14. capital — money
  15. clip — for paper
  16. field — a subject
  17. tube — the underground
  18. field — for sport
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. tube — a container
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. field — farmland

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