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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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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: kick · hide · march · file · capital · clip

  1. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. We have nothing to ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — animal skin
  2. march — the month
  3. capital — a city
  4. kick — in football
  5. capital — money
  6. clip — to cut
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. march — music
  9. march — the month
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. file — a line of people
  12. file — a tool
  13. clip — a video
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. file — a document
  17. clip — for paper
  18. hide — to keep secret

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