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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: capital · bark · cell · content · deal · clip

  1. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  13. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — an agreement
  2. capital — a city
  3. clip — to cut
  4. content — the amount
  5. bark — to shout
  6. cell — a phone
  7. content — happy
  8. capital — money
  9. clip — for paper
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. deal — to handle
  13. deal — a big deal
  14. clip — a video
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. cell — in biology

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