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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 kitten curled into a ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. We're almost out of ________________.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. The King held a masked ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  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. ball — a round shape
  2. file — a tool
  3. clip — for paper
  4. file — a document
  5. snap — to click
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. capital — a city
  8. net — for catching
  9. net — after costs
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. ball — a great time
  12. pop — soda
  13. net — in sport
  14. dip — to dunk
  15. capital — money
  16. pop — to visit
  17. file — a line of people
  18. dip — to sink
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. ball — a dance
  22. clip — to cut
  23. pop — music
  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