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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. The King held a masked ________________.
  24. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. firm — steady
  3. hand — in cards
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. tube — a container
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. wax — to grow
  8. clip — for paper
  9. file — a tool
  10. hand — help
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. clip — a video
  13. firm — decided
  14. clip — to cut
  15. capital — a city
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. capital — money
  19. ball — a great time
  20. file — a document
  21. file — a line of people
  22. tube — the underground
  23. ball — a dance
  24. firm — a company

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