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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: spell · fall · capital · kid · row · game · clip · kick

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. kid — child
  4. capital — money
  5. fall — to drop
  6. kick — in football
  7. row — to paddle
  8. clip — to cut
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. spell — magic
  11. game — wild animals
  12. clip — for paper
  13. kid — to tease
  14. clip — a video
  15. game — a match
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. fall — to drop
  19. row — a line
  20. fall — the season
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. spell — a short time
  23. spell — letters
  24. kick — a thrill

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