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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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. He works in a ________________ mill.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. clip — a video
  3. saw — past of 'see'
  4. band — a music group
  5. clip — to cut
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. band — a ring
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. capital — a city
  11. capital — money
  12. bat — the animal
  13. roll — a cake
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. saw — the tool
  16. clip — for paper
  17. mine — for digging
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. calf — of the leg
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. roll — a list

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