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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bat · chest · chair · capital · deal · clip

  1. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — an agreement
  2. chest — of your body
  3. capital — money
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. bat — the animal
  7. chair — a leader
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. clip — for paper
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. capital — a city
  13. chest — of your body
  14. clip — a video
  15. chest — a box
  16. deal — to handle
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. clip — to cut

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