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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 116 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: clip · fan · bound · capital · row · mate · dip · land

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  7. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  13. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  22. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. 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. clip — for paper
  2. mate — a friend
  3. land — to come down
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. clip — a video
  6. dip — a sauce
  7. bound — obliged
  8. mate — a partner
  9. bound — certain
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. dip — to dunk
  13. bound — tied together
  14. land — a country
  15. row — to paddle
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. row — a line
  18. capital — a city
  19. dip — to sink
  20. land — ground
  21. mate — to breed
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. capital — money
  24. 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