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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 120 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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Word bank
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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: wave · club · bound · capital · clip · tear

  1. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. That was ________________ to happen.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. capital — a city
  3. bound — certain
  4. tear — from crying
  5. clip — to cut
  6. capital — money
  7. clip — a video
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. bound — obliged
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. bound — tied together
  12. clip — for paper
  13. wave — a sudden rise
  14. tear — from crying
  15. wave — with your hand
  16. club — for dancing
  17. tear — to rip
  18. club — a group

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